Code LYOKO: Cyber Upgrade
by Max Salsa
Summary: Two teams, two times. A girl and boy that will tie them together like never before. What secret has Kelly's family kept all this time? And why does Kelly feel such a strong connection to a girl she's never seen in her life? Chapter 16 up!
1. Import :: SP1

_- Neo's Notes -_

_As promised, I've started work on a revised version of this story. I'll post it up as I get more work done, but rest assured that I will work on the main story (the end) along with this. With all that said, thanks for upgrading to CL: CU Service Pack 1. (Look for this to tell if a chapter is at SP1 yet: --SP1-- )

* * *

_

_Code Lyoko: Cyber Upgrade by NeoDude _

_Summary: Two teams, two times. A girl and boy that will tie them together like never before. What secret has Kelly's family kept all this time? And why does Kelly feel such a strong connection to a girl she's never seen in her life?_

_Disclaimer: Kelly and Erika are mine, all mine! I don't own Code Lyoko or any related characters or ideas. _

* * *

1: Import --SP1-- 

Kelly was nervous. Her bright, vibrant green eyes showed only a slight trace of worry, but it was there. Not that she could be blamed. After much deliberation, she'd been allowed to change schools to a new place: Kadic High School, located in a somewhat remote part of France. She would leave tomorrow, taking a nonstop flight to a small airport in a small town, where someone from the school would pick her up; the students were about to get out for winter vacation, though she'd arrive with several days of school left before she went right back on break. Here in Woodland Park, Colorado, snow was falling in vast quantities, and yet they never got a snow day out here. Plus, things were starting to get far too routine for her liking. Her appearance was not so out of place so as not to fit in, as, aside from the trademark shining green eyes, she looked much like her friends and neighbors in the town of a few thousand. She needed a change. She was going to get one.

She was just about packed. Her trusty laptop was already charged up, and would be going on the plane with her. The computer tower and accessories would be checked, as would her luggage itself. That left only herself, and any other last-minute things she needed to grab. She decided to pull out her laptop and charger, turning the system on. It booted fairly quickly. The girl now added a USB memory key to a port on the side. "Jack in… Are you there, Anna?" she said in her normal, somewhat soft but firm voice.

"I'm here, Kelly," answered a voice. A hologram sprung to life from the memory key. This was Kelly's own invention, the Holodrive. Its main use was to support an artificial intelligence, and allow its created likeness to appear in three interactive dimensions. She'd created several extra in case she needed a new one for one reason or another, but this was her own that she used all the time. She didn't worry about integrity, as she'd designed in a system that, no matter how much the disk was read, its integrity was maintained. About the only thing that could kill Anna was force to snap the plugin from the base, or a large object crushing her. Neither of those was likely to happen. Ever. "How may I be of assistance, o great and mighty master?" Anna added jokingly.

"Ha, ha. Very funny. Now then, let's run through that list one more time." Anna began to list off the things she'd made a list of earlier to remember. She found each item in turn. There were only one or two more left for Anna to call.

"Say goodbye to your brother."

"Oops, haven't done that quite yet. Yet, I don't think I need to right now. As close as Christmas is and as detached from me as he's been, I think he can wait."

"Last: Get Erika out of the way. AGAIN."

"She's not here yet…" A ring of the doorbell said otherwise. "I hate it when you're right…" She headed upstairs, opening the door. "Yes, Erika?"

"Why do you have to leave?" she cried. It was only fitting that her best friend for many years, who actually happened to look so much like her that the two occasionally were thought to be twins, be the biggest opponent of this. As such, she'd begged and pleaded to be allowed to come with them to the airport that Kelly suspected they'd agreed if only to get the young girl off their case. "What about ME?"

"It's not forever! Besides, you never know… I'll probably be back a lot." She turned back to her laptop, still in her hand. "Anna, put on some music? I can't talk in an empty house comfortably." Her playlist began to play on random mode, helping her feel a bit better. And yet… She couldn't place the feeling, but it seemed that something big was going to happen. She dismissed it and started gabbing away.

Whoever said ignorance was bliss… was exactly right.

* * *

- Neo's Notes - 

There's your revised first chapter. Enjoy! This is Neo, and you're listening to WNEO.


	2. Arrival

Code LYOKO: Cyber Upgrade (by NeoDude)

A/N: OK, I lied... I'm posting up the next section now, since the first one was kinda short. Oh, and when expressing the time for a LYOKO section, "RWT" means the time in the real world (Real World Time).

* * *

2: Arrival

Kadic: Jeremie's room, 10 PM local, 12/20

"So, Einstein, how's Lyoko?" Odd asked, in his usual comical manner.

"Nothing to report right now," Jeremie replied, his nasal voice still carrying an air of knowledge beyond that of the normal person. Odd had gotten used to that some time ago. "I'll call you if XANA comes for a chat."

"That's the only being I hate more than Sissi." Odd peered out the door, and then quickly but quietly shut the door as he came back. "And while we're on the subject…"

Jeremie took the hint and put everything into sleep mode. The door opened, and Sissi, the self-appointed Miss Popularity of Kadic, waltzed in.

"I don't suppose you've heard, but we're getting a new student soon. She sounds like a geek… maybe you'd like her, Jeremie." Then she turned and left as quickly as she had come in.

"She's oddly cheerful," Odd noted. But Jeremie was already off into cyberspace, to contact Aelita, the AI – no, IB, for intelligent being – that lived in Lyoko.

"Hello, Jeremie," she responded in a cheery tone.

"Hi, Aelita. How are things in Lyoko?"

"I'm glad you asked. I'm feeling slight pulsations…"

Jeremie turned to Odd. "Isn't that strange timing…" Then a look of horror crossed his face. He dashed out into the hall. "Sissi!" She stopped and turned to him, so went on. "Where is this new girl coming from?"

"Somewhere in the western United States." And she kept walking her original path without another word.

"Oh, no..." Jeremie headed back to his room to talk to Odd. He also turned on the PC so Aelita could listen. "OK, I have a theory. It's going to sound crazy, but here goes: XANA is out to disrupt air travel. And the only reason he cares is…"

"… if that girl would be the next member of Team Lyoko," Odd and Aelita said in unison. Then Odd looked at the screen and laughed.

"Exactly. And if that's the case, it's our job to stop XANA at all costs. Odd, let's go. Aelita, see you there. Lay low until I can virtualize Odd."

"OK," they both said, and Odd glanced at the computer again. "Let's go, Einstein," Odd finished on his own. But then he yawned. "Correction: Let's go tomorrow, Einstein."

Colorado: Airplane, 9 AM local, 12/21

Kelly was ready to go. The flight attendants said it would be about a three hour ride, but the time differences would mean it would be a ten hour ride. At cruising altitude, she pulled out her laptop and browsed the data on Kadic College again. She already spoke pretty fluent French, so that wasn't the problem. It was that the school didn't seem that diverse – or very techno-oriented. But she knew her PC, and thus her ability to contact her friends and family (and play games and such) while she was away. Of course, she also had her cell phone, which was triband, and so would work in France – or almost anywhere in the civilized worlds, for that matter. She got a little drowsy, so she put her notebook away, grabbed the pillow and blanket that weren't in use, and took a nap.

Lyoko: Forest, 4 PM RWT, 12/21

Jeremie had finally gotten set up at the factory… and just in time. His research showed that the only flight to France today was about to take off. "Right then. The activated tower is in the Forest region. Good luck." He loaded the virtualization protocol as Odd stepped into the scanner one floor below. "Transfer, Odd. Scanner, Odd. Virtualization!"

Odd appeared in combat form in Lyoko, and his matching avatar and character card appeared on Jeremie's monitor. "Two incoming Crabs!"

"No sweat!" He turned as the first one approached. He took careful aim, and… "Laser Arrow!" He fired an arrow at the Crab, which brought it down. Aelita spent 30 Life to create a copy of Yumi's fan, and then threw it at the other Crab, finishing the job.

"Wow, nice shot, Aelita," Jeremie noted.

"I like to think I'm not totally helpless."

"OK… hey, there's the tower! Aelita, hurry! Odd, cover her! Two Blocks coming!"

"Right." He found them both before they noticed him, and silently sniped them with Laser Arrows.

"Now _that_ was stylish, Odd. Nice job," Jeremie commented from his front row seat.

Inside the tower, Aelita rose to the top floor, placed her hand on the console, and the code was inputted. Then time reversed… but not by much, since XANA hadn't attacked yet…

France: Airport, 6:45 PM local, 12/21

The flight had taken less time than expected. In any case, Kelly was ready to go. She grabbed her things and headed for the bus outside that would take her to Kadic…

Kadic: Front gate, 7 PM local, 12/21

It was a bumpy, uneventful ride to the school. She thanked the driver, who had introduced himself as Jim (the PE teacher), and headed in with her things. She was stopped a short way in by the principal, who gave her a class schedule and a dorm assignment. A few more yards – no, meters (she had to start thinking in SI units) – inside, she was blocked by a girl who said her name was Sissi, and was the daughter of the principal. "So, you must be that new girl from the States."

"Yes, that's me." Kelly could already tell she wasn't going to like Sissi. "And I need to get to my dorm now. Bye." Despite Sissi's attempts to stop her, Kelly continued nonstop to her room, which she didn't share with anyone else. She put her clothes in the dresser, stuck her diary in the top drawer and put on the five-digit roller lock, and began to set up her computer. When she was done and she turned it on, her special AI greeted her.

"Ah, it feels so good to be turned on again!"

"Now, Anna… you were only unplugged for five hours…"

"Well, you try being stuck in a chip for five hours, bored out of your mind!"

"Oh, right. Sorry."

"It's OK. Want me to send out e-mails now?"

"Good idea. Message text: 'Arrived at Kadic. It's great here. Green trees, lots of plants, lots of people. I'll IM later.' End of message. Send it to Erika."

"Is that all?"

"Yeah. Send the message." Sometimes Kelly wondered if it had been a good idea to program a sentient AI program… but she loved the results, and didn't regret her choice. "Now, on to more pressing matters… are you detecting any other traffic on the network?"

"Actually, yes. It's coming from the boys dorm… room 25, building C."

"Hmm… Anna, send a message box. Text: 'Hello. I am Kelly from 17B. I'm a computer geek, and I noticed that you have a computer on the network. I'm coming to say hello before lights out. Later.' End message and send it."

"Sending… done."

Kadic: Jeremie's room, 7:30 PM local, 12/21

As Jeremie was chatting with Aelita, something flashed on his taskbar. "One second, Aelita…" He read the dialog box that had appeared, then yanked Odd's headphones off. "Odd, I think we're about to have a new member of the team." As he finished, the door opened.

"Greetings, fellow geek. I come in peace." The girl that Jeremie presumed to be Kelly had blond hair, soft green eyes, white skin, and was probably taller than Yumi.

"So, you're Kelly, then."

"Yep."

"Well, hello. I'm Jeremie, and this is Odd. Say hi, Odd…" He got no response, because Odd had already taken back his headphones and was listening to his music again. "…Whatever. Anyway, come and visit anytime… but knock first."

"I'll just have Anna send a message ahead."

"Anna? Is she a roommate?"

"No, silly. She's my AI program," she said matter-of-factly, as if everyone had one.

"AI… program…" He recovered, and went on, hoping the others wouldn't be too mad at him. "Meet me here tomorrow at five PM. Don't bother sending me a message, I'll be expecting you. I'll see you tomorrow, OK? Hurry back before Jim catches you… he's also the night watch in addition to the gym teacher."

Odd had heard that, and added, "And the general staff annoyance!" The three laughed, and Kelly headed back to her room.

Kadic: Kelly's room, 7:57 local, 12/21

Kelly undid the lock to her diary, which was simply a password-protected USB drive, and stuck it into the computer. Anna recognized it right away. "Password already entered. Want to post to it now?"

"Please.

_Today was my first day of existence at Kadic College, which means Kadic High to the rest of us. I met the only other geek in the school, a boy named Jeremie. He said he wanted to see me tomorrow… wonder what that's about? Oh, and I already hate Sissi, and I've only spent about 15 seconds with her. Note to self: Avoid Sissi at all costs._

End entry."

Anna closed the entry, and used force to push the drive back out. Kelly locked it back up, and then changed and went to bed.


	3. Induction

A/N: This chapter links to Episode 1, Teddygodzilla. More stuffs at the bottom...

* * *

Kadic: Hallway, 9 AM local, 12/22 

The next day, Kelly found she had all the same classes as her Jeremie and his friends. She reported to first hour and kicked Odd out of his seat of honor next to Jeremie, then sat down. "Good morning."

Not accustomed to hearing anything but Odd from this range, he was surprised. "Oh, Kelly. Hello. So… I take it you're a computer geek like me?"

"Of course. Duh!" She saw his laptop, with Aelita on the screen. "See? You have an AI, too. I don't know why you were so shocked last night." She addressed Aelita directly. "And what is your name?"

"Oh… hello. I am Aelita –" Jeremie hastily shut his laptop.

"Class is about to start…" But Kelly could tell that Aelita was about to say something that Jeremie didn't want Kelly to hear… at least not yet.

* * *

As soon as her first class had ended, Sissy went back to her room with the intent to skip and dream about Ulrich. First, though, she went to her mirror to ensure she still looked OK. While she did that, a black smoke drifted in through the power outlet, and made a beeline for the teddy bear she had stolen from that idiot reporter earlier. The XANA symbol appeared in its eyes, and then it stood. 

_Ah… freedom! My terror on Earth shall now begin!_ And the XANA-bear toddled over to the chair next to Sissy, climbed on top of it, and made its best scary face.

It worked – Sissy screamed and ran straight out of her room.

_Are these humans really _that _easy to scare?_ Then it grew larger, absorbing the fear of Sissy to become more powerful. _I am unstoppable!

* * *

_

Kadic: Sewers, 10:35 AM local, 12/22

After class, Kelly followed Jeremie to what she assumed was their next class. She ended up in the sewer, with Odd.

Jeremie spoke up. "Kelly, have a skateboard? Or a scooter? Or something else with wheels?"

"I don't need one." She took a voice recorder out of her pocket. "Anna, code 16!"

"Understood." A few seconds later, a skateboard appeared at Kelly's feet. "Sorry for the delay… you know, the whole space-time thing."

"Not a problem. Thanks!" She put on the helmet that had also appeared, and waited for instructions. All she got were astonished stares. Jeremie recovered first. "Anna can… warp things?"

"Yeah! Awesome, eh?"

"…Never mind," he said, noticing Odd becoming lost. "Follow us and don't fall in." He got on his scooter and proceeded forward, Kelly close behind.

* * *

Jim had gone outside to ensure that the grounds were secure before the prom that was to be tonight. He heard a rustling in the bushes, and wheeled. "Who's there? I'm warning you, I know kung fu!" 

The bear didn't care, it just needed a power trip. It proceeded to beat up the groundskeeper in no time flat – and actually beat him flat, like a pancake. _Ah, so many weak beings…_ It got stronger, and moved on towards the gym.

It was at about that time that Ulrich and Yumi walked by en route to the factory.

"We can't just leave him here, Ulrich…"

"…Oh, all right. We'll take him to Dorothy."

* * *

They soon arrived at the factory, where the others were waiting. When they got to the supercomputer, Kelly was awestruck. "Wow… this is even more powerful than _my_ system! Is this yours?" 

Jeremie was nervous. "Eh… no. We borrow this." He turned to the other three. "Guys, Aelita has felt some pulsations. I'm still scanning, but for now I'm going to send you to the Glacier region… that's where Aelita is now."

They headed downstairs, and Kelly followed to watch. "OK, here we go! Transfer, Odd. Transfer, Ulrich. Transfer, Yumi." The three stepped into the large tubes that were down there, and the doors closed behind them. "Scanner, Odd. Scanner, Ulrich. Scanner, Yumi." Kelly could hear a rush of air from the tubes, which Kelly assumed were scanners. The dark forms of the three teens inside them floated higher. "Virtualization!" There were three bright flashes, and then all the scanners were empty. With nothing more to see here, Kelly went back up to Jeremie, who appeared to be playing a VERY elaborate computer game… but he had no control. On the screen, Kelly saw three green markers – each labeled with the names of one of the three that were virtualized – and three red markers.

"Uh… what is this, exactly?"

"This… is Lyoko. It's a virtual world containing that pink creature that you called an AI earlier. There's another being that uses Lyoko to disrupt our lives in the real world, ranging from possessing things to transmitting harmful signals that our electronic devices pick up and use against us. That other being is XANA, and he also controls monsters in Lyoko. Now, Aelita is unarmed, so we go in and save her while she deactivates the towers that XANA uses to control things in the real world. Then, once that's done, we turn back time to reverse the damage that XANA has caused. But we have to hurry, because if someone dies, we can't bring them back."

"Cool… can I go to Lyoko?"

"That's actually… what I was going to talk to you about. I can create an identity. But you can't tell _anyone_. Not your diary, not your best friends. I suppose Anna can know, since she's sentient enough not to tell others your secrets. Do you agree?"

Kelly could tell this would be a life-changing decision. "…Yes."

* * *

Jim woke up in the infirmary. "Jim! You're awake!" Dorothy said in surprise. 

"Did someone… bring me here?"

"Yes, Ulrich and Yumi did."

"Ugh…" _I remember… that thing attacked me…_ Jim had a sudden realization that he needed to warn the others. "Sorry, Dorothy, but I need to go!" And he proceeded to the gym without another word.

* * *

Of course, Kelly was a bit nervous before her first virtualization. Jeremie expected that, but… "OK, I'm starting now. Transfer, Kelly." The scanner door opened, and she shook off her fears and went in, turning to face the doors as they closed behind her. "Scanner, Kelly." A gust of air blew her higher up, so she was floating. "Virtualization!" She closed her eyes when the bright light flashed… and opened them again to find herself 10 feel off the ground, and about to start falling. 

"…Uh-oh." She tried not to scream as she hit the ground with a thud. She was dressed in a blue T-shirt, pants that looked kind of like working circuit boards, and shoes that would have normally been a bit uncomfortable… but she couldn't feel anything in Lyoko, according to Jeremie. Which was a good thing, because as she rushed to meet her allies, she noticed incoming laser fire.

She heard an incoming transmission from Jeremie. "OK, Kelly, this is Lyoko. You do have a weapon… it's that laser blaster that should be on your shoulder." She noticed the item for the first time, and equipped it. "Be careful, you've got limited ammo. When the supply runs out, you'll either have to just do without, or wait for me to upload more juice. When you take too much damage, you'll materialize back in the scanner. I'll warn you as you get closer to that. Now, go help the others!"

"OK, will do, Jeremie!" She ran to the others, who saw her, but didn't have time to waste. Kelly took out her weapon, took aim, and sniped a Spider, followed by two Hornets. _That_ gave the others time to stop.

"Nice shot, Kelly. Welcome to Lyoko!" Odd was cut off by a freeze laser from a cocky little Block, which froze Odd for a short time.

"Careful, Odd! 60 Life left," Jeremy called out.

Kelly shot the Block to smite it, as Odd defrosted. "Hmm… nice scouting, Einstein." Kelly would have blushed, but she couldn't in Lyoko, so she saved it for later.

"OK, I figured out what XANA's done this time!" Jeremie cut in. "He possessed a teddy bear, and it's grown to the size of a short skyscraper. We have to stop it!"

* * *

Jim arrived at the prom. "Everyone, we have to get out of the gym right away! There's a giant teddy bear outside!" 

The whole student body laughed, except for the one person that mattered. "I know, Jim! I saw it, too!" Sissy called out.

Sissy's fear spread to the others like wildfire, and one smarter kid relayed the message to the rest of them by pulling the fire alarm. The doors opened as students streamed out, only to be scared stiff by the bear.

_Oh, no! Now what… Wait!_ "Sissy!" Jim ran over to the stage. "Pass me the microphone stand!" She did as told, and he armed himself for battle, the kids parting to allow their savior access. _I know I can't beat it, but I have to at least hold it off…

* * *

_

"OK," Aelita responded. "We're almost there, anyway." And she ran the rest of the way to the tower on her own. She rose to the top, and the console opened to take Aelita's handprint. "AELITA", it confirmed.

* * *

The bear easily knocked away the stand, grabbed it, and narrowly missed its chance to impale a kid. It swung at Jim, who crossed his arms in a defensive stance, but knew he couldn't hold out for long…

* * *

The system now requested the code for deactivation, noted with the word "CODE", and displayed a keyboard.

* * *

Jim flew back when his stance was broken, and the bear moved to strike him down. _This is it…

* * *

_

Aelita entered, "LYOKO", and the system responded by deactivating the tower.

"Nice job, team. Return to the past, now!" And Jeremie hit the enter button, triggering the white light from the tower to spread and engulf them…

* * *

"That was some nice shooting back there, Kelly. Glad to have you on the team!" Odd noted. _Now_ Kelly could blush, and she did. All the others just laughed… 

End of Episode

* * *

Neo's Notes 

Behold my junk! In any case, this is an author note section. First, I want to mention that I am a CL freak - I've seen every episode. At least twice.

On to business! I didn't think a whole lot of people would read this... how very wrong I was. On reviews:

Janika - Only reason I'm here is because I read yours, and decided that I might actually be read on this site. (Plus signed reviews are always nice. ) Anyway, as for your comment, Anna is closer to Cortana (Halo) then Megaman (MMBN).

Ulrich221 - Already have more ready. But you may want to read this first, ya?

Laters, and hope you enjoyed! -Neo

Review quota for next chapter: 5


	4. Acquisition

Kadic: Kelly's room, 4:30 PM, 12/22

That night, Jeremie resolved to chat with Kelly. He found her in her room chatting with Anna, and knocked politely.

"…Oh, hold on, Anna." It sounded like she got up, then spoke again. "Anna, I say Jeremie's on the other side of the door. Rate of probability?"

"Eighty-five percent."

"Close enough." She turned back to the door. "Good afternoon, Jeremie," she said as she opened the door.

"Good guess. Anyway –"

"Don't just stand outside… come in, stay a while," she offered, ushering him inside and closing the door. To the AI, she added, "Barrier type 2 on the door, knocks only."

"Already active," Anna noted.

"Now then, Jeremie, what brings you here today?"

"Actually, it's Anna," he said, causing both faces to turn to him.

"Anna?" "Me?" the two said together.

"Yeah. I would appreciate it if someone else could run the supercomputer from a distance – that is, I'd rather have as many Team Lyoko members _in_ Lyoko as possible. With Anna running the supercomputer, we could truly do one-man operations… and have more available scanner fodder."

"Well, I won't give you Anna herself – I'll make a sister program with the same abilities, and you can add a more detailed description of the inner workings of Lyoko."

"That sounds good. Thanks."

"Oh, and I was going to ask if –"

A knock at the door interrupted her. "Positive ID as… Jeremie, it's your friend Ulrich. I'll let him in."

"Great. Thanks." The door unlocked and swung open, revealing Ulrich, as Anna had said.

"Jeremie, Odd has a really weird idea, and he wants you to hear it. Kelly, you should come, too."

They both sighed. "Oh, I suppose…" Jeremie conceded. "Shall we?" he added to Kelly.

"Sure," she said, taking the hand that Jeremie had offered. With her other free hand, she grabbed her walkie-talkie, and prepared to take Anna. "Jack out!" she said, pulling Anna's drive from the PC. "It's from a US TV show," she confirmed, to put Ulrich and Jeremie at ease.

Ulrich looked at this and laughed inside himself. "Come on, you two."

* * *

_I may have failed in my last group of cycles… but I shall not fail now! My power is absolute!_ XANA sent his controlling smoke to a power pylon outside Kadic, causing his trademark bullseye decal to appear for a moment, before the pylon began to store power…

* * *

"OK, here it is: We should start a band!" Odd let his idea sink in, and then went on. "I think this school needs a good rock band. I can be the bass guitar." As he said this, Kelly plugged Anna in to Jeremie's laptop, as Jeremie linked to Lyoko. Kelly then took her own laptop out and began to make adjustments to the copy of Anna.

"I'll be on keyboard," Ulrich volunteered.

"I've got vocals covered," Yumi asserted.

"Now we just need someone for the drums…" Jeremie started.

"Oh, no, don't look at me!" Kelly countered.

"Well, then, let's hold auditions!" Odd said.

"Good idea. Let's go see the principal," Yumi suggested. And with that, Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi headed for the principal's office.

As the others left, Kelly finished the adjustments to the program. "OK, Jeremie, what name should the AI respond to? It's female…"

"Hmm… Let's go with Sarah."

"That's a nice name…" She made the adjustments and put it onto another drive. "Last, here's a walkie-talkie to hook her up to. And you're all set!"

"Wow, thanks, Kelly. Let's head to the factory so we can test it."

"Right behind you." They headed for the factory, unaware of the trouble brewing…

* * *

Kadic: Factory, 6 PM, 12/22

"Jack in, Anna!" Kelly called out.

Jeremie decided he liked that catch phrase. "Jack in, Sarah!" Kelly cast an amused glance at him as the two AI programs entered the system.

Anna couldn't decide what expression to use, so she settled on annoyed. "Ah, that new AI smell…"

"Don't get so paranoid, it's just another AI that can run Lyoko remotely."

"Oh, that reminds me! Aelita said to pass on the message that XANA has activated a tower. I assume you can make something of that?"

The two humans glanced at each other. "Well… let's see if the AI works. Is it programmed to be able to virtualize us?"

"Well… I had no source code from the supercomputer, so you'll have to teach it." She moved over to the supercomputer.

"Try again. As soon as you plugged me in, I was able to learn the program right away," Sarah said pointedly.

"…OK, then. I suppose you can come… What kind of character _do_ you have, anyway?" Kelly asked.

"You'll just have to wait and see…" Jeremie said with a chuckle.

"Oh, all right, if I must… Anna, be a good girl and help Sarah, OK?"

"Will do. Let me know if you need a reload or anything… or backup."

"Of course. Have fun!"

The boy and girl headed down one level, as Sarah got ready to send them over. "OK, let's go! Transfer, Jeremie. Transfer, Kelly." They both got into scanners. "Scanner, Jeremie. Scanner, Kelly." The scanners activated and lifted them up. "Virtualization!" They were blinded by a familiar bright flash…

* * *

Kadic: Gym, 6:30 PM, 12/22

Meanwhile, the three band members had just gotten approval from the principal, and found some talent to recruit. The first boy had been OK… but he wasn't a rock musician. Up now was Naomi. As per usual, Odd was smitten with her, and thus didn't care whether she was good or not. But as for the others…

"I don't know… let's see the next person," Yumi started.

"I agree with that," Ulrich said.

"Oh… she's perfect… ohhh…" Odd said incoherently.

The next – and last – person up was Nicholas. When he took the drum sticks, it was like the whole school building itself was leaning in to listen – as were, of course, Yumi and Ulrich, who were simply amazed.

"Wow, that was perfect!" Ulrich called.

"Yeah, excellent! Nicholas, I think we've just found a drummer!" Yumi exclaimed happily.

"What? Naomi was _way_ better than him!" Odd cut in.

"Yeah, right! Nicholas was awesome, if you were listening –" Yumi was cut off by her cell phone. "What's up, Jeremie?" She had a look of surprise. "Oh, really? Well, hello, then… Seriously? OK, we'll be right there. Thanks." She hung up and turned to the others. "We'll be back with our decision tomorrow. Guys, that was Jeremie…" She didn't need to say any more. They headed to the factory…

* * *

Lyoko: Forest, 7 PM RWT, 12/22

Both of the humans made a face plant as they entered Lyoko. "Well, at least I'm not the only one," Kelly noted.

"_Jeremie_? Is that you?!" Aelita was too happy for words, while Kelly just looked. He was wearing his usual attire, the blue shirt and khaki pants, into Lyoko, but had a decidedly more dangerous look. He had a handgun that launched USB drives that destroyed monsters on impact, and also had the ability to heal others.

"Yeah, it's me. Now, where's the tower?"

"It's over there. Just follow the pulsations." Jeremie followed her gaze to the tower, off in the distance. On its way back, however, it caught two Blocks.

"Looks like we'll have to fight first. Let's get moving!"

-------

The others entered the factory, expecting to find Jeremie at the chair, ready to scold them. What they found was two floating holoprojections.

"Uh… Einstein? Someone's in your chair…" Odd noted.

"Don't worry, it's fine," he responded… but his voice sounded tinny, almost as if…

"No way…" Yumi checked the screen to find three character cards in play at once: Aelita and Kelly, and… Jeremie?! She turned to Odd and Ulrich. "He did it! He finally went to Lyoko in combat form!"

A voice came from one of the projections. "And I suppose you want to join him?"

Having just played Kingdom Hearts recently, Odd had liked it, and he had a few favorite quotes. In his best Donald Duck impression, he said, "AHHH! It talks!" Everyone laughed, even Jeremie and the other two in Lyoko (he had recently made a modification to allow that).

"Yes, yes, yes. Anyway, I'm Sarah, and I'm going to be helping out here. Now, off to the scanners with you!"

The three were about to go down when Anna stopped them. "Jeremie! I found what XANA's up to. He's overcharging a power pylon outside the school grounds. And when it's maxed out, it's going to let that power flow out to… oh, no."

"What is it?"

"He's going to blow up the nuclear power plant! It's going to be Hiroshima, except about ten times worse! Everyone within a 50 mile radius is doomed!"

"OK, here's the plan," Odd said with authority. "Yumi and Ulrich, you head for that pylon, and try to stop XANA manually. I'll go to Lyoko and help Einstein and Kelly." It sounded funny to mention Jeremie _in_ Lyoko, but they'd have to get used to it.

"OK, will do," Yumi agreed. The two headed for the elevator to go up, and Odd took the stairs down.

"OK, Sarah, let's roll!"

"Sure. Transfer, Odd. Scanner, Odd. Virtualization!"

* * *

XANA sat in his window above Lyoko, where he could monitor all four zones at once. He watched the children in the Forest region now. _Ah… time for sweet revenge!_ He used his touch screen to order five Blocks to intercept. _Let's see how you handle this…

* * *

_

The four carefully proceeded to the tower… and found that XANA had been waiting. "Five Blocks ahead, Jeremie."

"OK, then! Time for some virus busting!" Kelly called, as she found a good spot to snipe from. Five shots were fired, four Blocks went down. Jeremie finished off the last one with his USB shooter. "This is too simple… Something seems wrong here."

* * *

Meanwhile, Ulrich and Yumi were trying to find the pylon… they didn't have much trouble, as it was glowing bright blue. After he established a cell connection to Anna, he asked, "How much time is left?"

"Not much. The charge is at 75 percent, so about 20 minutes."

_Oh, boy. Come on, Jeremie… hurry up!

* * *

_

_Foolish children…_ XANA sent a Megatank to appear behind them, and activated his new stealth program. The Megatank would be invisible to the sensors in the outside world until it got within firing range… at which time it would be too late. _Kelly… Aelita… this ends here!

* * *

_

Yumi had found a man from the electric company standing near the pylon, with two of his coworkers in the pickup truck behind him. "Sir, this pylon is going to overload and destroy the power plant! You need to do something!"

"…Right. Whatever. Look, do you have proof or not?" he said crossly.

"Um… no…"

"Then GET OUT OF MY WAY!"

"With all due respect, sir, I know that this information is true, but I can't reveal the source."

"Then… oh, all right, I'll look into it. But you'd better be right!" He did some work, then used a laptop to make a computer model. As Yumi had said, the power would traverse the lines and blow up the power plant, causing death on a mass scale. The man swore, then turned back to Yumi. "Well, you were right. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to cut these cables, and fast!"

"How much time!?" Ulrich yelled into the phone, panicking.

"You're right to yell. The charge is at 91 percent... about 5 minutes until it overloads, and another 30 seconds until it hits the plant. If you can get out of the country, now is a good time. I hear Colorado is nice this time of year…"

* * *

Jeremie could sense a presence behind him. "Sarah, is there anything behind us?"

"Not that I can see."

"Hmm…" He drew his handgun again, and aimed right behind him. "Format!" The projectile him something metallic, bounced off, and flew over the edge. At the same time, the stealth program failed, revealing the Megatank to the others – and to Sarah. But Jeremie, not to be outdone by one of XANA's cheap tricks, activated his Power, spawning a keyboard in front of him. He typed furiously, becoming temporarily impervious to the Megatank while he adjusted a particular setting in Lyoko. "Megatank… command line… delete!" It broke into the wire frame that the gang was familiar with, until it disappeared, leaving the tower unguarded. "Let's hurry!"

* * *

"Ulrich! It's at 98 percent! Power release in 45 seconds!"

_No… come on, Jeremie! It's up to you now!

* * *

_

Aelita entered the tower and walked to the middle of the platform. She floated up to the top platform, and the screen appeared to take her handprint.

* * *

"99.6 percent! Do something!"

"I'd like to, but I can't! It's all up to Jeremie now!"

* * *

Aelita put her hand on the sensor.

AELITA

The screen cleared, then displayed a keyboard and the request:

CODE

* * *

"The pylon is full! It's releasing the power! Follow it… maybe it'll get sidetracked!"

"It's electricity, Anna! It doesn't have a brain _to_ get sidetracked!"

"Either way, 15 seconds until impact! Any last wishes?"

"Just one: _Get me out of here!!!_" he said, as Yumi fell to her knees, and began to lightly cry, knowing it was over.

"…8…7…6…5…4…"

* * *

LYOKO

When the correct code was entered, the status windows all around the tower stopped, then dropped to the bottom of the tower – if it even had one. "Got it!" she called, so it could be heard outside the tower.

* * *

"…3…2…1…"

Ulrich waited for the radiation to kill him instantly… but it never came. "Did he…"

"Yup. Aelita just deactivated the tower. You're not dead."

* * *

"Here we go! Return to the past, now!" Sarah inputted the command, and the familiar white light covered the town…

* * *

In the gym, Nicholas was wrapping up his performance.

"Stellar!"

"Awesome!"

"You get the Odd Seal of Approval!" Odd said, slightly surprising Yumi and Ulrich.

"Hey, I want in, too!" Jim called from the door, holding his slide trombone. The three had seen him play before – he was genre-defying, and would most certainly be able to fit in.

"Sure thing, Jimbo," Odd said.

* * *

The next day, the Pop Rock Progressives gave their first performance. It was simply amazing. Yumi was the perfect choice for the lead singer, Ulrich was the keyboard master, Odd handled the guitar like a pro, Nicholas was awesome, and Jim's trombone was both unorthodox and logical at the same time.

Sitting in the back of the room, Jeremie and Kelly were silent. Kelly made the first move and put her hand on Jeremie's. They both blushed, and then held hands for the rest of the concert.

* * *

Neo's Notes

Ah… another chapter down. Anyone else notice Kelly and Jeremie are getting along quite well? Don't worry, a HUGE plot twist is coming.

Reviews:

Janika – As I just mentioned, a big plot twist is coming anyway.

Oh, and BTW, I turned on anonymous reviews. More coming soon!

-Neo


	5. Realization

OK, Neo's got your plot twist right here! This takes place the morning after Episode 2, but before Episode 3 (Holiday in the Fog). Enjoy.

* * *

5: Realization (TV sync: Before E3, Holiday in the Fog)

Kadic: Kelly's room, 9:30 AM local, 12/24

The Lyoko gang had met in Kelly's room, with Anna and Sarah, in order to simply chat for a change. It was Christmas Eve, and most of the Northern Hemisphere was on winter break. Everyone but Jeremie and Kelly was going to leave for the holidays. Those two, however, were going to stay in case of XANA attack. So, everyone was going to say goodbye before they parted ways.

The meeting was wrapping up, and everyone was heading out. "We'll all have our cell phones on," Ulrich noted. A general murmur of agreement was heard in the others. "OK, see you later!" The others said goodbye as well, as they left the room. Only Jeremie and Kelly stayed, knowing they'd be here for the long haul…

"Kelly?" Anna interrupted. "A video IM for you… it's from your family."

"Oh, really? Awesome! Patch them through the vid-link for now." Anna moved off to the side, revealing a video feed of Kelly's family back in the USA. "Hi, everyone!"

"Kelly! Hello! Who's that next to you?"

"That's my new friend, Jeremie. He and I are the only ones staying at school over the break… I only left three days ago, so I can't come back home. And Jeremie would rather stay here to geek in peace." _Geek_ was defined in Kelly's family as a verb which meant, basically, the act of being a geek. It fit Kelly's style, since she was often in the possession of a geek-class object, usually her laptop.

"Oh, I see. So, what's the word?"

"Well –" She took that opportunity to glance at Jeremie, who, she realized, hadn't the slightest idea what was going on. He hardly spoke any English… Kelly would have to change that. "One sec, guys…" She set Sarah to translate into his earpiece, then added to him in French, "Put it on. It'll translate." He silently thanked her, then put it on. "Now that Jeremie knows what's going on, where were we? Oh, right: what's new? Well, it turns out the that only computer user is sitting right next to me."

"Really? Just one in the whole school?"

"Yup. I've been hanging out with Jeremie and his friends… exploring the town. There's all the usual stuff… sights to see… you get the idea."

"Yeah, I understand." Kelly noticed that her brother Joe was, as usual, present but silent. She got a strange feeling… then her memory reminded her of something that Joe had told her a while back.

-------

"_So, bro, what hacking projects are you engaged in right now?"_

"_I found a supercomputer in France… I'm programming this killer new virus, to take full control of the supercomputer and cause havoc on a local scale."_

"_And what are you going to call this 'killer new virus?'"_

"_Simple: XANA."_

-------

"Listen, I've got to go… I'll talk to you later, OK?"

"OK, then. Bye!" She released the connection, and let her emotions flow, which she had been hiding from her family.

She put her head in her hands and groaned loudly. Jeremie ripped out the earpiece, and Anna returned to her post. "Kelly!" they panicked in unison. "What's wrong? You never get this worked up without a good reason…"

"Here's your answer: Search conversation history for Joe. You'll fragment yourself for not catching this." She searched for a moment, her projection dimming while she did… and then she found it, and gasped.

"_What?!_" Jeremie yelled, realizing that he was out of the loop.

"My brother… he designed and installed XANA!"

* * *

Lyoko: Hideout

"Oh, dear. It seems dear sister Kelly has found out about me. No matter. She'll never stop me!"

* * *

"How… how could he?!" In a rage that neither AI nor human had seen before in her, she growled, "Get me a vid-link to Joe. _Now._ I'd like to kill him right now, but I'll settle for seeing if he can stop this."

Anna, afraid for the first time in all her cycles, wasted no time. "Establishing link… got it." She brought up the link, featuring Joe at his computer. Jeremie jammed the headset back in, realizing that he needed to hear this. Badly.

"Oh, little brother of mine! You do realize that your virus is trying to kill me, yes?"

It finally clicked in Jeremie's mind. _Her brother created XANA… and now she's going to beg him to stop it!_ "Joe! Listen to me! I've been fighting your virus for almost a year now! And I'll have you know, we've been almost killed hundreds of times! Just yesterday that virus tried to set off a nuclear power plant! And we were half a second from getting atomic bombed! By our own power plant! Explain yourself!"

"What…? Sister? Jeremie? What are you talking about?"

"Ever since I came here, your XANA virus has been trying to kill me! Daily!"

"In fact, it tried to kill her _on her way_ here!"

In a whisper, she asked Jeremie, "What? You never mentioned –"

"Later!" he hissed. He returned to Joe. "So, what reason do you have for trying to kill your sister?"

"Many, none of which I was acting on." He sighed. "Look, Jeremie. It looks like Kelly hasn't told you about me, so I'll do it myself. I'm a hacker as my primary hobby, as well as a virus programmer. I make viruses and infect systems, but I'm only trying to cause a little bit of local havoc. I never intended to hurt anyone, and I'm truly sorry." His expression hardened. "There is only one perfect way to shut down XANA. And sis, it involves you."

"Me?"

"Yes. You see… a little bit of your soul and personality is programmed into Aelita, as some of mine is in XANA himself."

"Him?"

"Yes. He's programmed in my image, somewhat. He'd stand a little bit taller than Aelita, and he's dressed in black. Here, let me upload the image…" Anna and Joe moved aside a bit more to accommodate the newcomer: a picture of XANA. He looked like Joe, all right.

"OK, so we know what XANA looks like. Now how do we get rid of him? You mentioned Kelly a second ago…" Jeremie cut in.

"Right. Put simply, it's like the primal connection between mother and child: when the child cries, the mother's presence dulls the pain. In this case, you need Kelly to convince the fragment of me that this is wrong, and he'll only listen to her – Aelita's fragment isn't enough to do the job.

"Now then, I can provide some help from here, as well. For starters, I'll double each of your max ammo capacities –"

"Wait, you only said you made XANA. Did you make Lyoko, too?" Jeremie asked.

"…Yes. Yes, I did. Now let me finish, Einstein!"

"…Don't tell me that you're monitoring our comm. channels?!"

"Yeah, I am, Jeremie. What are you going to do about it?"

"Easy, I'll reverse hack you and have that computer of yours fry your brains out!" Kelly interjected, furious. "Those are our private comm. channels!"

"And that's _my_ virus you're tampering with. So your argument is moot."

Kelly sighed, defeated for the moment. "Fine… so, how are you going to help?"

"For now, I can't do anything… wait! I have an idea! I've been saving for a new PC… but I'd rather come and help. XANA would likely listen to me more than you, anyway. I'm going to get a ride to the airport… I'll be at Kadic by evening there."

"If you're sure… thanks, bro. Just don't hack the plane… in fact, I think we'll go check Lyoko to see if XANA's plotting something."

"You forget I can do that too. He's activated a tower… and I think he knows I'm coming."

Kelly shot a glance at Jeremie. "Shall we hire ourselves as bouncers, then?"

"Of course. Joe, here's my cell number… call if something happens."

"My laptop and cell work at special frequencies… they can't be picked up by detectors, they won't interfere with things, and they work up to 50,000 feet in the sky. I'll cover you guys. Call when you get to the factory where the supercomputer is, and I'll virtualize you myself. Joe out." He broke the connection, probably to get packed.

"Come on, Jeremie, let's go!" Kelly said urgently. "We have to protect my brother!"

* * *

Kadic: Factory, 10:45 AM local, 12/24

"Joe! We're at the factory and approaching the elevator!" Jeremie said into his cell phone, with Anna's translation program still intact.

"OK, listen before you act." Jeremie activated the speakerphone on his mobile. "The back of the elevator on the _ground floor only_ is just a hologram: run through it, and you'll come to a three more scanners, and the supercomputer should come up to meet you. It should have coordinates for another region: the Memory region."

"Memory?"

"Because Aelita and XANA are made from the two of us," and Jeremie realized he meant Kelly, "our memories are in them, as well. Be careful in the Memory region: it's very easy to get lost or devirtualized. You'll warp into a tower; Aelita should meet you there. Please, Kelly, be careful… you may need your sister for this, as well."

"My… sister? I don't have one!"

"Oh, but you do. I found it on one of my hacking jaunts… your sister is Sissi, the daughter of Kadic's headmaster!"

"Oh. My. God. I am _related_ to that… thing?"

"Now, Kelly, don't say such things about your family!"

Kelly knew that Joe didn't make jokes unless two conditions were true: one, he knew his facts were straight; and two, he knew that he had some basis in fact for the joke itself. Not only could he tell that Kelly hadn't been all positive with Jeremie about him, but he knew for certain that Sissi and Kelly were… sisters.

"Did he just say what I think he said? Sissi is rightfully part of Team Lyoko?" Jeremie said, not believing the words he had just heard.

"I hate to admit it, but it sounds right. Jeremie, run me back to Sissi for now, so I can convince her to be of some use. I'll run the computer remotely."

"OK… but I'm going to call Yumi to help Kelly."

"OK. Neither of you should virtualize until I give the signal on the supercomputer," Joe added to Kelly.

"Understood."

"And while that's going on, I'll start a character card for Sissi."

"Uh… sure," Kelly and Jeremie said at the same time. Jeremie ran back towards the school with the cell, being sure to take the speakerphone offline, as Kelly went down the ropes like a pro, and, being just a bit worried, closed her eyes and took the holo-wall at a run. Finding herself still conscious, she opened her eyes to find that she was in another scanner room, as the supercomputer rose from one floor below.

She heard Yumi call her name. "Kelly? Are you here?"

"Yeah! Go through the back wall of the elevator!"

Yumi, never one to believe in traps or tricks, followed the instruction… and found Kelly in the secondary scanner room. "What happened? Jeremie said it was urgent…"

"It's a long story…"

* * *

Jeremie had finally reached Kadic, and found Sissi's room. Realizing that he'd never have done it otherwise, he barged in. "Sissi! It's… your brother, Joe." He held out the phone, and she took it from him, beginning to speak perfect English, with the speakerphone turned on again, and Jeremie's earpiece in.

"Joe? What happened that you called _him_?"

"I know you don't like him, but I get the feeling that you're going to be joining his gang… permanently."

"Oh, I _know_ I didn't just hear you say that."

"Oh, but I did, dear sister. You _did_ know that Kelly is your sister, right?"

"Duh. What do you take me for, an idiot?"

"…We'll get to that later. Anyway, I need you to go with Jeremie, and don't question him – his orders are from me, and so questioning him is questioning me." Joe added a cold tone to his voice. "And I _know_ you don't want that to happen."

Sissi's face fell. "OK… fine, I'll go with him."

Joe added to Jeremie, "Go ahead. Tell her about Lyoko as you take her to the factory. She won't question you. Disbelieve you, sure, but she'll follow you." He sighed, a tone of resentment in his voice now. "I didn't want her to find out this way… but I'm still too far out to even be close. I'll call Jim and arrange for him to pick me up. Bye!" The line went dead.

* * *

Kadic: Woods, 11:10 AM local, 12/24

"So… you've been keeping this a secret this whole time? From my father, from Jim, from… everyone!? Even from me?"

"Yes. We had to… before this moment, I thought you'd turn me in, the factory would be closed down, and we'll all die. Big time. Just yesterday, XANA tried to blow up the nuclear power plant! Remember Hiroshima in history class? Rename it Kadic, and that'd be yesterday if we'd failed."

Although she didn't stop, or even slow, Sissi paled. "So, then… it needs to remain a secret?"

"Exactly." They reached the manhole cover, and Sissy followed him in, taking Ulrich's skateboard for the time being. "There is one way that you could tell Nicholas and Herb… but I'll explain later. Right now, Joe is programming you into the system so you can help us out, and not forget that any of this happened. If you let this slip out, we'd be in trouble. Big trouble. You can't even write this in your diary… if it gets stolen…"

"That would be bad."

They reached the factory's front door. "OK, now slide down the ropes." She got down gracefully, and followed Jeremie through the holo-wall of the elevator, just as Kelly finished briefing Yumi on the situation, and Joe was wrapping up with Sissi's card.

"OK, guys. Jeremie, head for B2F's scanners. Girls, stay here. Sissi, follow my instructions. When I say 'Transfer' and your name, get into the big white tube – it's called a scanner. When I say 'Scanner' just stand still – don't bend over, or move from a standing position. When I say 'Virtualization', just close your eyes, and you'll open them again in Lyoko. You're with Jeremie then." He then spoke to all four of them. "OK, guys, I'm sending you to the Memory region. Get ready!

"Transfer: Yumi, Kelly, Sissi, Jeremie." The four got into the scanners, Sissi with a noticeable rigidness.

"Scanner: Yumi, Kelly, Sissi, Jeremie." The scanners whirred to life, blowing their usual air from the bottom.

"Virtualization!" Four bright flashes went off, and four humans disappeared from their scanners.

* * *

Lyoko: Memory, 11:20 AM RWT, 12/24

As the gang entered Lyoko, part of the air in the Memory region fused with them, so they could breathe; but it had the side effect of carrying some of Joe, Kelly, and Sissi's memories. "What… is this place? It feels so familiar…" Kelly said nervously.

"This is the Memory region, named for the fact that it consists of our memories," Joe said into his headset, which auto-translated into French. "When you entered, your memories mingled with the ones already here, and changed the Memory region's shape, form, and ultimately whether or not you can even _get_ to XANA."

"OK, then, bro: How do we get to him?" Sissi asked. Aelita came from behind them, and Yumi began to fill her in.

"That's going to be the easy part. Sissi, see those swords on your outfit? You can attack with those. If you take too much damage, you'll return to the real world, and you won't be able to come back."

"Hey, Joe! Don't forget, we're in Lyoko in the first place so we can deactivate the tower!" Jeremie reminded him.

"Oh, whoops! I forgot about that! OK, Aelita, here's the plan," he began, noticing her arrival. "You, Jeremie, and Sissi head for the tower. Yumi, guard Kelly until she gets to XANA's base. If she's devirtualized, it's over. We'll lose access to the Memory region for a while. Jeremie, you'll want to use that normal tower to get out of here while the getting's good. Remember, time won't turn back at all, so I'll devirtualize you. Good luck!"

"OK, let's go, guys!" They used the tower to warp away from the Memory region, and arrive in the Forest, where the tower was.

_Good luck, Jeremie… and hurry!

* * *

_

Lyoko: Forest, 11:25 AM RWT, 12/24

It was an uneventful trip down to the tower. Only two Blocks were in the way, suggesting that XANA was trying harder to cut off Yumi and Kelly then keep Joe away. Jeremie took out one with his handgun, and the other went down via Sissi's swords. She was getting the hang of Lyoko in record time., and so there was little need for Jeremie to speak up. Once they got to the tower…

"Stay here, Sissi. We have to guard the tower," Jeremie reminded her. She silently nodded, and they watched for any hostiles… but there were none. The tower changed from a red glow to a blue one, and Joe's voice came back over their comm. channels. "OK, guys. Head back to the Memory region and help Yumi!" They headed back towards the tower…

* * *

Lyoko: Memory, 11:30 AM RWT, 12/24

"Yumi!" Jeremie called. She turned to him as he ran forward.

"Finally… Come on," she urged. "We have to hurry before…"

Three Blocks appeared on the thin path in front of them.

"…before XANA's monsters show up," Kelly finished.

"Don't worry, I've got this," Sissi bragged. She ran forward, reflecting lasers back to destroy two of the Blocks, and finished off the last one with a sword to the XANA symbol.

"Nice job!" Yumi called. But it was short-lived. A hail of lasers came from nowhere, and even with the 50 HP bonus, Sissi went down. "No! Sissi!" She glanced at the position from which the lasers came… and saw another 20 Blocks.

"I _really_ don't like those odds…" Kelly said. Apparently the Blocks heard her, and fired a full round of lasers at her. It didn't matter how bad their aim was, they had her surrounded. She went down without a fight, and the whole gang was devirtualized with her.

* * *

Kadic: Factory, 11:40 AM RWT, 12/24

The whole gang semi-collapsed out of the scanners, then met again in the supercomputer room, as it came back down to meet them. "So… we failed."

Kelly was hanging her head, knowing that she'd failed everyone. "I'm so sorry…"

Joe's voice came back through the cell phone – he'd called again. "Kelly, sis, chill. You didn't do anything wrong. You just got shot. A lot."

"OK, then… I trust you. Have Jim send you to my room when you show up, OK? I'm going to bed now… that last trip tired me out.

"OK, then, sis. See you soon!" He disconnected, and they all filed out of the factory and back to their dorm rooms (or home, in Yumi's case).


	6. Inhalation

6: Inhalation (E3: Holiday in the Fog)

Kadic: Kelly's room, 3:05 PM local, 12/24

As promised, Joe had showed up later that day, but had given Kelly more than ample time to think about what had happened (and take a nap). She had decided that Joe was right – XANA was just being his usual evil self. She was in the process of complaining to herself about Sissi's introduction as her sister, as the door opened to reveal… Sissi herself, with a smiling Joe behind her.

"Hello, sister. Sister_s_," Joe corrected himself, remembering that Sissi was still by his side.

"Welcome to France, bro. And good afternoon, Sissi. Have a nice time in Lyoko?"

"I'm still… getting used to it. Jeremie says that I'll adjust in no time, and for once I'm hoping he's right."

"You should trust him… Jeremie, among other things, monitors Lyoko from the outside," Joe chimed in. "If you're in trouble, it's ultimately up to him to let you know, or help you get out of it. Of course," he added with a sly smile to Kelly, "it's possible that his girlfriend could twist his arm a little bit."

She glared at him, then sighed. "Oh, well…"

"Incoming Jim… close the door so I can put up a barrier," Anna requested. Joe let Sissi in first, then closed the door behind him, and it flashed for a moment to show that the barrier was in place. "OK, done. Continue."

* * *

XANA was now quite mad. He had slipped long enough for the brats to enter the Memory region – _his_ region. He would not stand for this. _I'm going to make them regret the day they found this supercomputer!_

He calmed down, then looked at his most important possession: the way to fix Lyoko. Joe had programmed it in himself, knowing that the virus wouldn't be stupid enough to delete itself.

_To get out of the hole that's been made_

_Battle through the barren glade_

_Reach the dome, the source of darkness_

_Use its secrets and be released from this prison in your mind._

He was calm enough that he released himself from his thoughts, and spoke to himself. "Ah, it appears that the next tower is ready." His voice was cold, and it carried knowledge unimaginable to a mere human. "It's time… time to end this!" He took control of his thick black smoke, and sent it to a few barrels of toxic gas in the school. _Farewell…

* * *

_

Kadic: Sissi's room, 3:30 PM local, 12/24

The little gathering had wrapped up a minute or two ago, and the gang had scattered back to their rooms. Sissi was planning to take a nice nap for a day or two, but was interrupted by something that floated into her room. It was a pinkish gas, and it looked almost like… _oh, no. That can't be XANA's mark, can it?_ But, of course, it was. She grabbed the nearest breathable cloth object, a washcloth in her bathroom, and ran out the door, screaming as loud as she could. She was starting to pull away from the smoke when something interesting happened: She collided into Jim, who was wondering exactly Sissi was trying to wake the whole school.

"There's this toxic pink cloud…" Hearing its general description, the gas came close enough for Jim to see it.

"Oh, boy…" He found what he knew to be a small storage closet, and ducked inside with Sissi, sealing the bottom of the door with his jacket. But there was a small problem: this room had no air vent.

"No… we're going to die here…" Then Sissi got an idea. She took out her phone and sent a text message to the one person who could help her…

* * *

Kadic: Jeremie's room, 3:35 PM local, 12/24

Jeremie was talking to Aeilta as usual, when both noticed something strange: Pulsations for Aelita, and the SMS ringtone for Jeremie. He got out his mobile, and at the same time started a scan for the infected tower. The message was short (a text message maxed out at 100 characters), yet descriptive:

_Jim & I are in closet near my room. XANA gas trapped us here. No vent – we'll die! Help! Sissi_

"Oh, boy," Jeremie panicked, in Aelita's general direction. "Sissi and Jim are trapped in a closet with no vent… they don't have air! If they stay in too long, they'll suffocate and die; if they try to go out, they'll choke on the toxic gas. The only way is to go to Lyoko! Sarah!"

"Right here, chief."

"Send a message to Kelly, Yumi, and Joe right away: I need help in Lyoko! Let me know when that's done, because you're coming with me."

"Sending… done. But Kelly appears to have fallen asleep…"

"Three will be enough. Also, send a message to Ulrich, and tell him that he needs to save Sissi! Now!"

"OK… sent."

"Right, then, let's roll! Jack out!" He removed Sarah from the system, and started towards the factory at a run, Joe and Yumi eventually falling into step with him at different times.

* * *

Lyoko: To Glacier, 3:45 PM local, 12/24

"We've got to do something!" Jeremie called out. "Heading for the Glacier region…"

"Loud and clear," Sarah soothed. "Calm down. Now then, where was I? Oh, yes. Transfer: Jeremie, Joe, Yumi!" The three upper scanners opened, and the three stepped in. "Scanner: Jeremie, Joe, Yumi!" The scanners whirred to life and did their job. "Virtualization!" The bright flash soon yielded to…

"OW!" Joe, having not been in Lyoko before, fell flat on his face when he was virtualized. "That hurt…"

"It should," Jeremie noted. "That's the last upgrade I made – things that hurt on Earth, hurt in Lyoko. Except for lasers. Those don't hurt too awful much… unless you get pegged by a lot at once. _Then_ it hurts."

Joe got up, rubbing his nose. "I'll try to remember that," he conceded, in a nasal voice that would have been funny had Sissi's life not been in danger. "Let's go." Finally ready to go, he stood so that all could see his Lyoko attire, including Aelita, who had just appeared. Joe wore a black ninja suit, with throwing stars on his belt – which obviously meant he had a limited supply. But, of course, he could always pick them back up…

They were in sight of the tower when Hornets appeared. "I've got this, Yumi. Take her the rest of the way," Jeremie said, Joe nodding in agreement.

"Will do. Be careful…" Yumi pleaded, as she headed towards the tower with Aelita.

"I will…" Jeremie began.

"But I'll do the work." Joe closed his eyes. "And this is the part where the Hornets die. Power!" He disappeared from the visible spectrum, then briefly reappeared long enough to toss a star into the weak spot of each Hornet… but they stayed intact, until Joe reappeared at the end of the narrow walkway they had been fighting on. He slid to a stop, with the words, "Farewell! _Release!_" At the moment he said that last word, the stars all blew up, doing lethal damage to every Hornet, but also causing the stars to become unrecoverable.

"Whoa… nice!"

"That's my job." Joe smiled, then got serious again. "Let's go help the girls."

"Good idea. Let's go!"

* * *

Kadic: Factory, 3:50 PM local, 12/24

"Jeremie, I'm patching through a call from Ulrich…" Sarah's voice came over the channel, before the slight shift in the sound, which indicated that Ulrich was on the line.

"Ulrich here… I'm in the school, and it looks bad. A big pink cloud is in the hall, and happens to be clustered near Sissi's room, and the closet next to it."

"Ulrich! Here's a plan: Kelly has probably slept long enough. Go wake her up – her help will be quite nice, plus I'm sure she has a nice supply of breathable cloth objects," Jeremie suggested.

"Good plan. Ulrich out." He cut the connection, leaving Jeremie to the task at hand.

* * *

Kadic: Kelly's room, 3:52 PM local, 12/24

Ulrich quietly opened the door to Kelly's room, finding her lightly sleeping, as Jeremie had said she was. "Kelly…" he said quietly. She stirred, then turned away and tried to sleep again. "Kelly, we need you! Sissi's going to die out there!"

_That_ got her up. "Sissi?" Kelly said groggily.

"Yeah. She's trapped in a closet, and is either going to suffocate or choke, depending on what happens when she gets desperate. Either way…"

She literally jumped out of bed, already semi-dressed. Her pajamas would be adequate for this rescue mission. "Come on. Let's go save my sister."

_Sister?! Did I miss something…?_ Ulrich wanted to say something, but didn't have time.

"Hey, Anna! Activate the floor vents in this hallway so it pushes the gas up!"

"I'm on it… done!" The air vents rattled as they shoved air out, pushing XANA up.

"Now, Ulrich!" The two crawled along the floor to the closet, then pushed Jim's jacket out of the way, allowing fresh air to flow in. "Hey, Jim and Sissi! It's me, Kelly! Listen! You need to come out of there, get on the floor, and crawl to the stairs!" The door opened, and the two followed directions… or tried to.

_No! You're not going to get away that easily!_ a voice called. Kelly realized that it must belong to XANA, just as the air vents cut out.

"OK, Plan B! Everyone to my room, stat! We'll go out the window!" The group headed to Kelly's room, only to find that XANA had sealed the vent, and the window was nailed shut. Even worse, he locked the door behind them!

_I told you, you're not getting out of here alive. Now, claim your fate, humans!_

"Shut up…" Kelly said, already panting from the dash, and more so because there was less air in the room.

_Admit it. You're done for, and you know it. And your precious Aelita won't make it to the tower._

Another voice crackled in the thought-speak. "Aha! I knew a channel was open! Kelly! Don't worry, we'll make it in time! Don't believe him!"

"Trust me, I'm not…" she said, barely able to speak anymore.

_Get off my channel, human!

* * *

_

"I will _not_ be referred to as 'human'! You will refer to me as Jeremie! Don't make me shut you down!"

_An empty threat, and you know it. You're too attached to Aelita._

"Ah, but there's nothing saying I can't infect you with a counter-virus," Jeremie threatened.

_Hmm… you may have something there. Fine. I will refer to you as Jeremie, if you will refer to me as XANA, and not 'you fiend' or 'it'. If you're going to refer to me in the third person, at least use 'he'…_

"I already do," Jeremie reminded him.

_Then we are in agreement. Now, then… where was I? Oh, yes. Your little friends…_ Then XANA realized that he had been tricked, and wasn't sending his Megatank to intercept Aelita… he wouldn't be able to stop her in time. _No! You deceived me! You will pay, Jeremie! I promise you!_ He closed the channel.

Inside the tower, things were going quite well.

AELITA

CODE

LYOKO

"So it worked after all!" Jeremie said. With no response from Kelly, he got back on task. "Return to the past, now!" he said in unison with Sarah.

* * *

The gang had just broken up their meeting, with Sissi still planning to take a nice, long nap. She got her rest this time.

Meanwhile, in Kelly's room, Kelly was catching up on _her_ lost sleep, with one difference. Jeremie was sitting on her bed dozing, and her head was resting on his leg. _It's so nice to have friends…_ they both thought, at the same time.

-End of Chapter-


	7. Intermission: Perspective on Life

7: Intermission – Perspective on Life

* * *

Real life: NeoDude's room

Neo began typing the next chapter of CL: CU. What he didn't know was that his story writing skills were about to become his demise.

Out of the stereo came a thick black smoke, infecting the keyboard. Neo realized that it would change how the story was written… and likely not for the better. _"Curse you, XANA!"

* * *

_

Kadic: Kelly's room, 8 AM local, 12/25

"Ugh…" When I woke up/, something felt different… Once I was in reality and not sleep-land, I looked in the mirror. Yep, same old Kelly. So what was wrong? Seeing that the computer on my desk was already awake, I called in its general direction, "Anna, can I get a bio-scan?"

"Yeah. What's up?"

"I wouldn't know… something just feels wrong." To tell the truth, I honestly hadn't the slightest idea. Now, I could always assume the worst – XANA – but I wasn't ready to jump to that particular conclusion.

"OK, one sec… done. Nothing abnormal on the scan."

"Hmm…" Then I had an idea. "I'll go see Jeremie." I peered into the hallway, and finding it safe, ran to Jeremie's room and quietly opened the unlocked door.

"Yes, finally done!"

I leaned on his chair to see what he was doing. "What's done?" He spun to look at me, but fell out of the chair, and knocked me down in the process. "Ow…"

"I would… advise against… doing that… again," Jeremie panted.

"So, what's new?"

He recovered almost instantly. "It's a program to track the news and Lyoko for XANA activity. When it's active and it finds something, it –"

"It pulls up a warning and displays the information," I finished.

"How did you know?"

I rolled my eyes. "Because it just went off."

He glanced at the screen. "Oh. That works."

"Well, what does it say?"

"You're not going to invade my privacy?" he joked. But he paled when he read the window. "This isn't good… XANA's controlled a writer's computer, and is using it to manipulate various things. In this case, including you. It appears he can make you think like you were narrating a story in first person or something."

"Actually, that's what I was here about. I was feeling different this morning, and neither Anna nor I could figure out what was wrong," I explained. "But you just solved the problem…"

"XANA's activated a tower," Sarah called through the speakers, as Aelita appeared on the screen.

"I'm feeling pulsations…"

"We know," I said. "He's messing with assorted stuff in our world. Myself included."

"Oh, but that's not the worst of it! The tower he activated is in the Memory region!"

"Now _that_ is bad news," Jeremie said. "The only way to get there right now is through the central tower… and you can bet that XANA's guarding it."

"Of course."

"Well… we don't have a choice." I shuddered just hearing him say it. "We'll have to go to the Memory region."

"Joy." I remembered the last time we went there… I got devirtualized soon after we entered, which booted us all. Not fun. "We'll have to be careful…"

"We will. I'm not too worried. Because this time, we've got Joe."

"And more importantly," a voice said from the doorway, "we've got Kelly."

My brother entered the room. "You've got the same Ultimate Power as Aelita: you can deactivate towers. I can activate towers. Remember when I said our souls were in Aelita and XANA? That's where it came from. We just do other stuff better."

"And I can detain you all best!" said another voice from the doorway.

"Oh, no, I know that voice!" I said, in horror.

"Yep! It's me," Jim called. "And I know you're all scheming in here! I just don't know what about!"

"Jim, lay off them!" Sissi's voice said from behind Jim. "I'll just use one of my 'get Jim off my back' cards to make you go away from my friends!"

"These are… your friends? But you hate them!"

She made a noise that would have passed for growling at Jim – and not in a friendly manner. "Kelly is my sister. Now _go away!!_"

"Well, I suppose I'll let you go this time… but Sissi might not be here to save you later!" He left.

I sighed. "He's never going to leave us alone, is he?"

"Doubtful," Sissi noted. "But let's head for Lyoko regardless."

"Agreed. Let's go!" Jeremie said, running out, the others behind him… and Jim a short distance behind _them_.

* * *

Lyoko: Factory - Forest, 8:20 AM RWT, 12/25

"Virtualization!" The familiar white light shone, and we appeared near the center of the Forest region, which contained a tower.

"Hello again," Aelita greeted us. "To the Memory region?"

"Yep. Let's roll!" I said.

* * *

Lyoko: Forest - Memory, 8:25 AM RWT, 12/25

We spawned in the tower, and heard Sarah's voice. "Today's forecast: Laser showers and _a lot_ of Blocks." She paused for a moment, then came back on, panicking – not something that my AIs did easily. "Motion sensors picking something up… it looks like Jim followed you here! Jeremie, want me to devirtualize you?"

"Good idea. You don't need me in here…"

"Oh, and by the by, I added a keyword to devirtualize yourself: 'Jack out!' Try it now."

"OK, then… Jack out!" Jeremie turned into a wireframe, and disappeared.

"Oh, and one more thing: please remember that the system only responds to commands in French, Sissi and Joe." They acknowledged her, and Joe left the tower. He used his power, as far as I could tell, but it wasn't enough.

"Joe's down, along with 10 Blocks… 20 left," Sarah told us, as a status report.

"And Jim?" I asked.

"You don't want to know."

* * *

Kadic: Factory, 8:30 AM local, 12/25 (Viewpoint: Jeremie)

_No! This is horrible! If Jim finds out about Lyoko, we lose Aelita, we lose our enrollment at the school… we lose Lyoko._ Then I had an idea. _Wait! Maybe this could go well after all…_ I saw him sliding down the rope, and went to meet him. "Hello, Jim."

"Don't 'hello' me! I know something's happening here!"

"Actually, you're exactly right. Let me explain…"

_There are two possible outcomes from this. One, he likes the story, and doesn't tell on us, and might even help us. Or two, he doesn't buy it and tells the headmaster. Then it's over. I'm taking a risk here… but it's a risk I need to take. And if it doesn't work, he'll forget when time resets anyway… Here goes everything.

* * *

_

Lyoko: Memory, 8:35 AM RWT, 12/25 (Viewpoint: Kelly)

Sissi was up next. She went outside, and according to the viewscreen I accessed inside the tower, she activated her Ability twice, reflecting beams back to destroy all 20 leftover Blocks, but leaving her with only 50 HP. "Come on, let's move!" I said to Aelita, still next to me.

We went outside. I could feel my mind merging with the air, becoming one… "This way," I called, getting a map of the area. I took point, with Sissi and Aelita behind me. I reached the tower. "OK, I'm going in! Cover me!" I went inside the tower.

* * *

Kadic: Factory, 8:40 AM local, 12/25 (Viewpoint: Jeremie)

"That's some pretty crazy stuff you got there…" Jim said, as I wrapped up my explanation. "So, this computer is trying to kill us all… wow. OK, I'll help you out. But try not to cause mischief in the school if you can help it, OK?"

"Deal," I said with relief, realizing that my plan had worked. I added Jim's data to the supercomputer, so he wouldn't forget… but we wouldn't be able to virtualize, either. Not that it was a big loss for him. "Well, ready to go back in time?"

* * *

Lyoko: Memory, 8:45 AM RWT, 12/25 (Viewpoint: Kelly)

I walked to the middle of the platform, and I felt myself getting lighter, and going up to the next platform. I saw a screen appear, so I went up to it. It displayed a handprint, which I suspected meant "put hand here". I did, and the screen flashed, "Kelly". Then it asked for the Code. When the keyboard came up, I typed "LYOKO". The stuff on the walls fell to the ground around me, and I realized that it had worked. "Booyah!"

"Here we go! Return to the past, now!" There was a sound like a tape recorder stopping, then rewinding…

* * *

Kadic: Jim's office, 8 AM local, 12/25

"Well, that was interesting…" Jeremie had finished programming Jim's card just in time.

"Feeling better, Kelly?" Jeremie asked.

"Yeah, I am," I told him. "But I think I kinda like this… Maybe I'll do it myself. Who knows?"

-End of Episode-

* * *

-Neo's Notes- 

Depending on the reviews I get, I may leave the story in 1st person. Let me know how you liked it.


	8. Secrets

8: Secrets (E4: Log Book)

-Neo's Notes-

FYI, I've gotten a lot of requests to make my chapters longer… and, in an effort to make mine as good as G-Force 4's (or, hopefully, at least close), I'll work on that. But no promises. Anyway…

* * *

Kadic: Ulrich's room, 1 PM local, 12/26 

"Oh, no, I left it right here…" Ulrich was frantically looking for a certain something. He dumped out every drawer (stuffing it full again after he was done), carefully moving Kiwi before checking the one that doubled as his bed. "This is horrible…" Next was a full-blown of all bedding, under the beds, and in closets. No stone – or rather, particle of matter – was left unturned, but even so, Ulrich didn't have any luck. He resolved to check with Jeremie – maybe XANA had created a disappearing ray or something. It was a short jog down the empty halls to Jeremie's room. Ulrich opened the door to find Jim and Sissi on the other side, saying hello to Aelita. "_JEREMIE! Why are Jim and Sissi here with you-know-who on the screen!_"

"What, Aelita?" Sissi said innocently.

"Are we doing something in violation of some unwritten rule?" Jim asked, genuinely lost.

"Hmm… I must not have said this to you earlier… Let me do this in parts, and I'll give you the full story later. First, Sissi and Kelly are sisters. OK?"

"Uh…OK…"

"Next, Sissi is now a full member of Team Lyoko, character and all. Got it?"

"Uh, I think so…"

"Next, Jim followed us to the factory last time, and I ended up telling him the whole story."

"Go on…"

"He agreed not to tell the principal, and in return he's got basic data in the system, so he'll remember."

"…Right. Continue."

"One more thing –"

"I'm here, too," a male voice said from the doorway. This voice reminded Ulrich of Kelly… wait…

"Hello, Ulrich. My name is Joe, and I'm Kelly's sister, and the designer of Lyoko, XANA, and Aelita. What's up?"

"Huh?" He took a moment to get back to his old mindset, and then moved on. "Oh, yeah. I came because my diary is missing…"

"Hmm… to be honest, we've already ruled out the usual suspect, since she's already here," Jeremie said. Sissi looked at him, then realized that she was the only girl in attendance.

"_I'm_ the usual suspect?"

"You're always looking for a good way to get a date… why not blackmail?"

"If we weren't both part of the same team, I'd use that idea..." She paled. "Wait… Herb and Nicholas don't know I'm friends with you now…" The look of realization turned to one of horror. "No… it might have been Herb!"

"Oh, now I _know_ you didn't just say that."

"Unfortunately, I did. Obviously I haven't told them I'm on the team, and I didn't tell them that I'm hanging out with you now. Thus, Herb may be trying to one-up you on my date list… Theoretical, purely fictional!" she added, seeing Ulrich go from zero to mad in 1.7 seconds.

"…This is too much," he said, finally getting frustrated. "I need some time… to think… If Yumi comes, though, send her over… someone to talk to would be nice." He got ready to head back, but Jeremie stopped him.

"Well, congrats, Sissi. Ulrich is among our strongest Lyoko characters, and you just scared him off," Jeremie complained.

"It's not my fault that Herb is my most faithful follower… or, was." She sighed. "He's so delusional sometimes…"

"Just one thing, Ulrich: Did you write about Lyoko in the diary?"

He paled, realizing what he'd done. He had just put the world in danger. "Oh, crap."

* * *

Kadic: Yumi's house, 1:30 PM local, 12/26 

Yumi milled about the house, hoping someone would call sometime soon – she wanted to stay here about as much as the gang liked XANA. As if on cue, the phone rang, and Yumi dove for it. "Hello?"

"Yumi? It's me," Jeremie said.

"Hi. What's up?"

"Nothing. Ulrich just wanted to see you…"

"OK, I'll be right there. Bye." She hung up, left a note for her parents, and headed out with some of her things, just in case.

* * *

Kadic: Ulrich's room, 1:55 PM local, 12/26 

Ulrich had gone to his room and got mad at himself for a minute or two, then got tired and fell asleep. He was awakened by his door opening to reveal Yumi.

"Hello," he greeted sleepily.

"Hi," she said, a noticeable positive tone to her voice. "What's up?"

"Not much…" He sighed. "OK, much. My diary's gone, and Sissi suspects Herb," he admitted.

Yumi sighed too. "Figures… on our one day off…"

"Well, since when have we truly had a vacation?"

"Good point," Yumi admitted. "So, you've searched your room, I gather?"

"Yeah, up to and including the drawers and Kiwi's bed."

"Want to do a systematic search?"

"I'm too tired right now… maybe later?"

"I can do that… I've got nothing better to do." Ulrich promptly went back to sleep, and Yumi quietly left and closed the door behind her…

* * *

Kadic: Kelly's room, 2 PM local, 12/26 

Meanwhile, in Kelly's room, there was a slight rush to clean up before the pre-arranged Christmas video IM. Once that was done, Kelly let her brother and sister in, as well as Jeremie. Apparently this was good timing, because Anna popped up, with the warning, "OK, they're ready to connect. Want to accept it now?"

"We're ready. Patch them through," Kelly said boldly.

* * *

Internet: Direct connection between "Kelly's room" and "Kelly's house", 2:05 PM Kadic time, 12/26 

_I swear, someone needs to upgrade this school to at least T1… This basic broadband is slowing my Internet-based processes. _Anna was in the process of getting the connection up, but was having to wait for the bandwidth. It only took a fraction of a second, but that's a lot of cycles for an AI. Finding an opportunity, she made the connection, and the image of Kelly's family appeared on one of her virtual screens, Kelly and the others on the other screen. She tested the audio connection, and put out an "Audio OK" message to both parties. She also put out a generic reminder on Kelly's side not to disclose personal information to other parties, hoping she'd get the idea. She also began a translation routine, displaying "Translation between French and English active" on both sides, and adding in the custom dictionary. _It'd be _really_ bad if I had to turn back time because they slipped…_ An incoming transmission flashed on a third screen, and as Anna read it, she realized that XANA was in the process of doing that for them. _I'll let them finish first… But if the thing goes awry, I'll let them know.

* * *

_

Kadic: Kelly's room, 2:05 PM local, 12/26

"Hi, guys!" Kelly said, happy to see them again. For now she was speaking in French, so her friends wouldn't have to rely on the translation so much.

"Hi, Kelly, Jeremie, Joe… oh, my. Sissi, I didn't expect to see you again…" Kelly's father said.

"And hello to you, too," she said, with just a touch of anger.

"So, everyone, how are things at Kadic?"

"Pretty good," Joe said. "There aren't a whole lot of nerds here… just Jeremie, Kelly, and myself."

"And how are you doing in your studies?"

"Well, that question doesn't apply to Joe, Sissi's doing well, and I'm excelling, as always," Kelly said. "How's life in the States?"

"Pretty good. We're doing OK… but it's a little sad to have both of you over there in such a short time…"

"Don't worry, we'll come back," she assured. _WILL we come back? Or will one of us be lost in Lyoko forever, and the other will have to relay the news?_ a voice in her mind said. Kelly silenced it.

"We sent a box of assorted novelty items and junk food…"

"Oh, goody!" Kelly exclaimed. "That's the one thing I was going to miss… but it's coming to me! Yay!"

There was a knock at the door at Kelly's house. "Oh, we have to go… it was so nice talking to you! Bye!" The image cut out, displaying a "Connection Lost" message instead.

"Well, that was interesting…"

"Here's something better," Anna cut in. "I just got a message from Aelita: XANA's activated a tower, but it's in passive mode: as in, he's infected something, but he's not controlling it yet."

"OK, understood. We'll stick around… I'm not big into swimming pools. I still need to work on that materialization program…" Jeremie said, into business mode once more.

Odd opened the door, having gotten back from his trip late last night. "OK, guys, we're heading out now… the field trip bus is leaving soon. Bye!"

"OK, Odd, later," Jeremie said, as Sissi followed Odd out the door, Ulrich right behind her.

* * *

Highway: Bus, 12.6 km to destination, 2:15 PM local, 12/26 

Kadic's administration, having realized that the school would be wrecked beyond repair if the students were allowed to stay here, bored, until the end of break, so they remedied it by setting up a pool party that ran into the night. Of course, most all of the students took this opportunity… there was a good chance that they wouldn't get it again. The bus was packed, and it was electrically controlled, too – it was on autopilot.

Once all the students were sitting, the "driver" (in title only – he had little control without the manual override) turned the key, and they were on their way. But, neither the driver nor any of the passengers saw the three-ringed round symbol appear on the screen for a mere second, then go away…

* * *

Kadic: Kelly's room, 2:25 PM local, 12/26 

The dynamic duo was about to start some more programming for Aelita's materialization, when Anna popped up again. "Guys, the tower is active again. It's the bus that Odd and Ulrich are on… he's taken control of it. There's no way to control it if he locks the override! We have to do something…"

"OK, then let's go. Kelly, you get Yumi and your brother. I'll sit this one out… I may have to hack into the bus."

"Will do. See you there…" She ran in the direction of the lobby, where she knew Yumi was, as Jeremie headed for the secret passage…

* * *

Highway: Bus, 2:30 PM local, 12/26 

Since it was a local road, the bus was traveling at a leisurely pace of 45 km/h. They were less than 5 minutes away, but (of course) XANA never lets our heroes get a break. All of a sudden, the bus jerked, knocking anyone that was standing onto the floor, which happened to be carpet. Odd, Ulrich, and Sissi ran to the front of the bus as one, and saw on the screen the one thing they _really_ didn't want to see right now: the XANA symbol.

_Warriors… your lives are mine! _echoed a voice in their minds. The bus sped up to 120 km/h – American interstate speed, not local back road speed! At that precise moment, Ulrich's phone rang.

"Ulrich here."

Anna was frantic. "Ulrich! The bus is under XANA's control, and _it's heading for the power plant!_"

"Now _that_ is bad news. I'll pass on the word to the others… do something!"

"I'll do my best. Good luck!" She hung up.

* * *

Lyoko: Scanners to Desert, 2:35 PM RWT, 12/26 

"Transfer, Kelly. Transfer, Joe. Transfer, Yumi. Scanner, Kelly. Scanner, Joe. Scanner, Yumi." Jeremie was in the hot seat once again, and he kinda missed it. But he had a mission to complete… "Virtualization!"

The landing in Lyoko was uneventful… for a time. But then…

"Guys, 3 Blocks ahead."

"I'm on it," Kelly said, crouching to snipe. Once one of the Blocks fell, Yumi tossed her fan expertly, taking out another. Joe finished the last one with a star to the bullseye. With all three down, they moved further on…

"2 Megatanks trying a sandwich formation! Be careful!" Jeremie called.

The offending monsters both charged for attack at once, and with nowhere to run, the party was mowed down, but got right back up.

"Divide and conquer!" Kelly screamed. The others got the message, and each used a distance attack, which was followed by Kelly's sniper rifle. The two Megatanks were dispatched, and the path was clear to move on…

* * *

Highway: Bus, 14.1 km to new destination, 2:40 PM local, 12/26 

"Anna! How much time?" Ulrich panicked.

"At this speed… seven or eight minutes max," Anna admitted.

"Oh, great…" _It's my only hope. If this doesn't work, it's over…_ "I'm on my way."

"But that bus is moving at over 70 mph! You'll –"

Ulrich ignored her, and jumped out the front door, Odd right behind him.

* * *

Highway: Sidewalk, 2:41 PM local, 12/26 

"Come on, Odd, we've gotta hurry!" Ulrich called behind him.

"I'm hurrying as fast as I can!" he panted back.

_Oh, man, we're dead if we don't make it to the factory! Literally!_ Ulrich pushed his body to the limit as he ran faster. "Look, there it is!" They only had to cross the bridge, which they did, followed by a quick slide down the ropes, and an elevator ride past Jeremie to the lower scanners.

* * *

Lyoko: Scanners to Desert, 2:43 PM RWT, 12/26 

"OK, guys, I'm sending you to the Desert region. The others are already there. Here we go!" Transfer, Odd! Transfer, Ulrich!" They stepped into the scanners. "Scanner, Odd! Scanner, Ulrich!" They were lifted from the scanner floor. "Virtualization!"

They fell onto a narrow platform, a few yards from the others. "Miss us?" Odd asked playfully.

"Not you," Kelly replied, "just Ulrich." They laughed, then stopped abruptly when a laser almost hit Kelly. "Delta formation!" Ulrich took point as he, Yumi, and Odd moved into a practiced triangle formation, while the other three formed one in reverse – Aelita at the back, Joe and Kelly in the front, but still a triangle.

The four Blocks that had picked the fight were now attacking full force. Kelly used her practiced Snipewalk technique to take one down while still moving. "Triplicate!" The triangle broke as Ulrich made two clones, who formed another triangle. "HAH!" Ulrich screamed, jumping high into the sky. "Impact!" His blade came in at a perfect angle to rip the Block a new one, as did one of the clones… but the other one was shot , and so Ulrich was hit by the Block that was left over.

"90 Life left, Ulrich," Jeremie advised.

"Yumi!" Ulrich called.

"OK!" she answered. "Hah!" she grunted, tossing her fan and finishing the last Block.

"Finally…" Jeremie sighed. Then he gasped. "90 seconds! Hurry up!"

"I can see the tower!" Aelita called. The back triangle moved to the front as they ran ahead, protecting Aelita from harm. They rushed as fast as they could, knowing sentient life in France would be non-existent if they failed…

* * *

Lyoko: Hideout, 2:46 PM RWT, 12/26 

_The warriors? Here already? NO! They must be stopped!_ XANA accessed the touchscreen and sent a little surprise over to Ulrich's party…

* * *

Lyoko: Desert, 2:47 PM RWT, 12/26 

"45 seconds! And… 3 incoming Hornets, Ulrich! Behind you!" Jeremie panicked over the comm. channel.

"Understood," Ulrich responded, turning to face them. "Odd!"

"I'm on it! Laser Arrow!" He hit his mark with all three Arrows, killing all three Hornets. "Got 'em! Let's go!"

-

Meanwhile, Aelita had reached the tower. She floated up to the second level, where the monitor was asking for a handprint. She put her hand on it, and it flashed, AELITA. Then the screen cleared.

CODE

She entered LYOKO, and the activity in the tower walls stopped, as the windows slid into the dark abyss.

-

"_Jeremie! I can see the power plant! HELP!"_ Sissi said as her call went through.

"Tower was just deactivated. The bus should be stopped now…"

She realized it was true. "Oh, right."

"And I do believe that's my cue," he went on. "Return to the past, now!" The white light engulfed them, and they heard the sound of a tape rewinding…

* * *

Woodland Park: Kelly's house, 2:13 PM, 12/26 

There was a knock at the door. "Oh, we have to go… it was so nice talking to you! Bye!" Kelly's mom said, closing the connection. "Can you get that?" she said to her husband.

"OK," he replied. Opening the door, he saw four young people, in their _very_ late teens, he guessed. "Can I help you?"

"Does Kelly live here?" the one in front, presumably the leader, asked.

"No, she went over to Kadic High School in France… What can I do for you?"

"Nothing, we just needed to speak to Kelly… and Joe," he added, after one of his buddies whispered something to him.

"Well, like I said, they're at Kadic. Good day." He closed the door.

"Who was it?"

"Some thugs looking for Kelly and Joe."

* * *

Outside the door, the four were planning their next move. "Any suggestions? We don't have enough cash to all fly out to Kadic again…" 

"Here's a plan: Three of us will use the Remo-Scanners to go over, and the last will fly," one of the two girls suggested. "That's probably you, Matt, since you're going to need to operate the transfer protocols."

"Excellent idea, Sam," the leader, Matt, complimented. "OK, let's put this plan into action. I think I left some blankets in the factory's Closet 2, so you'll need to grab them – you're sleeping in the factory tonight."

"I just hope they're not too dirty…" the other girl said,

"I second that," the other boy agreed.

"Kate, Josh! Can it!" Matt interjected. They were slient. "OK, then. Let's hit it!" They ran back to Matt's house to use the Remo-Scanners to arrive at Kadic…

-End of Episode-

-Neo's Notes-

OK, that's chapter 8 done. Enjoy… and be ready for a BIG change next time!


	9. Generations

9: Generations (Big Bug)

* * *

Matt's house: Scanner room, 7:30 AM local, 12/26

Sam yawned as they entered the scanner room in Matt's basement. "Remind me why we're up so early?"

But Matt had that gleam in his eye that he only got when he was doing something big. Something unexpected. Something new, exciting, bold. "Because it's never too early to go on an adventure," he responded with a smile. "Come on, into the Remo-Scanners with you." He corralled them into the three smaller scanners, which linked to Lyoko just the same. "I'll send you to the Forest, and I'll devirtualize you from there. It's time to party!" That was his code phrase for, "OK, let's go!" "Transfer, Sam. Transfer, Kate. Transfer, Josh." Just like the ones in the factory, the scanners opened, and their scheduled passengers got in. "Scanner, Sam. Scanner, Kate. Scanner, Josh." The fans in the scanners whirred to life, and the three of them floated a bit. "Virtualization!" Three white flashes went off, and the scanners were empty. There was a satisfying green check on Matt's screen.

* * *

Lyoko: Forest, 2:35 PM RWT (Kadic), 12/26 

But Matt had made one crucial mistake: he'd forgotten to check if anyone else was in Lyoko. As it happened, Odd was doing some target practice with some flying disks that Aelita had made (she was now resting in a tower). He was too busy aiming at the disk that Ulrich had just thrown to hear – or see – the wireframe being rendered above him… until the product of that rendering landed on him, with two others landing after, one on either side.

"Oh, sorry…" the boy who'd landed on him said.

The other two, girls, completely ignored the fact that something was already going on, and began complaining to each other.

"Yo, Matt!" the boy who'd landed on Odd called to the sky. Jeremie caught this and tapped into the comm. channel. "It's called scanning for lifeforms _before_ the transfer!"

"Wha… lifeforms? Other than Aelita? Impossible! Let me check your optics, Josh."

"Don't bother. There _are_ other lifeforms here, and we're wondering how you got here without being at Kadic," Ulrich said suspiciously.

"Hmm…" Matt said over the channel. "Fair enough. Everyone – and that includes you other guys, too – devirtualize yourselves. My friends will brief you when they get to the factory."

"Understood," Josh replied. "Don't forget to make the call."

"OK, Josh. Sam and Kate, go with him."

"Will do," they said in unison. Then all three raised one hand to the sky, and called, "Logout!" They all wireframed, and were gone.

"Uh, Jeremie… what just happened?" Ulrich wondered out loud.

"No clue," he admitted. "But let's follow their advice. You know how to get out by now."

"Yep. Jack out!"

"Jack out!" Odd added, after getting up. They, too, wireframed and went away.

* * *

Kadic: Factory, 2:40 PM local, 12/26 

"OK, here's the deal," Matt said over his phone connection. Ulrich and Odd were already there. "Four years ago, we were new students at Kadic. We banded together, and became Team Lyoko. Eventually, Jim joined our cause, and we even got a few teachers in on our plan. But when the time came for us to leave the school, we wiped their minds of any and all Lyoko-related info. Thus, the next Team Lyoko – that's you – would have to work in order to find it." He was cut off by footsteps from upstairs, which was Sam, Josh, and Kate. "Let me introduce you to the first Team Lyoko. Let's start with Josh. As you can see, he's got jet black hair, blue eyes, white skin, and he's got a good heart. The redhead is Sam. She's a bit short-tempered at times, but she's loyal to a fault. Last is Kate. She's got brown hair, brown eyes, and she'll jump off the Grand Canyon before she'll talk about Lyoko to the outside world. Oh, and then there's Aelita, whom you already know. But when she equips a weapon, man, she's got the skills! It does decrease her HP though."

"And you?" Jeremie asked.

"Myself... Well, I'm the leader, and the one who operates the console. I have been known to enter Lyoko on _rare_ occasion, but I'll give you every ounce of support I can. Here's a picture…" Sarah pulled it up in another window. He was tall, with blond hair and blue eyes, protected behind glasses. He almost looked like a cross between a geek and a jock, but weighted more towards geek. "Now then, my plane leaves soon, so I'll be off now. Unless you all can provide other arrangements, my team is sleeping here for the night. See you tomorrow…" He cut the connection.

"Sleeping here?" Jeremie wondered, to the three new arrivals.

Josh grabbed the three blankets he'd set on the step when he came down. "Yeah. But we don't mind."

"OK, then… even though I'm sure we could handle a few extra heads…"

You could just _see_ Josh's face light up. "Really?"

"Yeah. I'll take Josh, and I'm sure that the two girls will fit in Sissi's mansion of a room. Come on." He led the two teams back to Kadic…

* * *

Kadic: Jeremie's room, 3 PM local, 12/26 

"Oh, Jeremie, welcome back," Aelita greeted Jeremie. "And who's –" She stopped and gasped. "Josh! Is that really you?"

"Yes. You look well."

"Jeremie, you didn't tell me that the old Lyoko warriors were coming!"

"I honestly didn't know. They literally dropped in on Odd this afternoon. Remember those plastic disks? Odd was shooting at them to refine his aim… when Josh fell from the sky directly above him."

"Sorry…" he said again.

"Not a problem," Jeremie assured. He turned back to Aelita. "Sam and Kate are with Sissi now, and Matt is flying over on a plane."

"So we'll see him tomorrow, then."

"Yeah. Anyway, I'm beat… All those in favor of a nap, say I."

Three "I"s were heard.

"OK, then. I'll see you later, Aelita. He disconnected from Lyoko, laid down, and promptly fell asleep. Josh did the same, on the floor on the other side of the room.

* * *

Kadic: Sissi's room, 3:05 PM local, 12/26 

The girls from the old team were wrapping up their introductions to Sissi as Jeremie went to bed.

"So, let me see… You're Sam, and you're Kate?"

"No, it's backwards. I'm Kate, and that's Sam."

"OK, that works, too…" She was getting more confused by the second. All this talk of Lyoko four years ago… It was a lot to absorb at once, but Sissi did her best. Anyway, she turned on the TV, and tuned it to her favorite soap opera.

"Oh, I love that show!" Sam cut in. "How much have I missed in the last few months?" Sissi and Sam began a show chat, while Kate shook her head, then took out a notebook and began to write.

* * *

Kadic: Ulrich's room, 3:10 PM local, 12/26 

Ulrich had, in fact, found his diary in his own room. It turned out that his search hadn't been quite as elaborate as he'd thought – it was under his pillow. He took it out, opened it up, and began to write.

_Well, today was exciting… Odd got flattened under some guy from the States, then we find out he was one of the Lyoko warriors from four years. What are the odds? Anyway, there are two girls there… I suppose if Odd still needs someone, they're open._

He laughed at that last remark, then realized his mistake and closed the notebook – Odd was still there. "What are you laughing at?"

"Nothing, just thinking."

"It's dangerous to be near you when you're thinking…"

Ulrich hit him with the pillow.

* * *

Kadic: Yumi's room, 3:15 PM local, 12/26 

Meanwhile, Yumi was writing in her own diary:

_I heard that something was going on back at the factory… no word yet on what, exactly. Personally, I'd rather spend the day with Ulrich while I still can…_ She smiled from thinking of him, then went on. _I really need to get a grip. I can't space for 5 seconds every time I think of him – otherwise, I'd be spaced out all the time!_

She closed her diary and put it in its drawer, then kicked back on her bed and began to daydream about the one person she'd just resolved not to think about…

* * *

Kadic: Jeremie's room, 8 AM local, 12/27 

Jeremie was getting up when his door was kicked open in a flamboyant manner. And on the other side was…

"Jeremie, let's go!" Matt called. "I've just been appointed as Jim's superior, so basically, I have that right! Now come on!"

"Not yet… I haven't said hello…" Jeremie said sleepily.

"Then consider this your 'hello' and 'goodbye,'" Aelita said from the computer. "XANA's activated a tower… and you'll want to check out this news clip."

Aelita pulled up a clip from the local news. The reporter appeared, cheery but concerned at the same time. "Good morning. We're coming to you LIVE with breaking news. Two trains that are controlled by computers have been hacked into, and are going to crash into one another." Her image cut to a map of the railroad system, Jeremie now quite awake. "As you can see, the two trains are only a few hundred kilometers apart. The one on the left is carrying a load of toxic chemicals, which would kill all the citizens of the city." The image now went to a clip of the mayor. "It is my duty to inform you all of a most grave situation. A train filled with toxic chemicals is about to crash into another train, and the result would be mass death and devastation. I am issuing a mandatory evacuation order for all citizens. It is imperative that you all leave the city immediately…" The image returned to the reporter. "Again, a mandatory evacuation has been ordered for the entire city, including the school campus. This is Janet Foxx, for Channel 7 News." Though it wasn't on the broadcast, as soon as the link was cut, Janet ran to the van, and she and her cameraman fled the city all the way to London.

"Well, then, what do you think?" Matt said urgently.

"Let's get going," Jeremie said, having gotten dressed while the clip was playing. The others were waiting for him, and they all went to the factory…

* * *

Kadic: Factory, 8:10 AM local, 12/27 

The mad dash to the factory had taken too long, and the trains would collide in just a few more minutes.

"Jeremie," Matt said soberly.

"What's up?"

"There's no way we can do this. If we try to stop XANA now, from here, this factory will become our own private gas chamber."

"Well, we've got to try! There's no other choice!"

"Actually…" He looked at Jeremie, intensely focused on the task he had been given. "We can localize."

"What?"

"Localization. Basically we'll use the scanners, skip Lyoko, and go directly to Woodland Park. We'll be safer there."

"But all the innocents in this city will die!"

"As will we. And, suppose we did succeed, but the teams got killed off in the process. Then what would happen the next time?" Jeremie was silent. "Exactly. Now let me show you how this works." He reprogrammed the supercomputer. "OK, the exit points are set for Woodland Park. All you do is the normal process, but it'll respond differently. Even though we're taking our stuff, the scanners won't complain. Are you ready for this?"

"Yeah… I think so. I'll send you first, so you can operate the other end for the last trip." Matt, Yumi, and Ulrich stood before the scanners. "Here goes nothing! Transfer: Matt, Yumi, Ulrich! Scanner: Matt, Yumi, Ulrich! Localization!" There were the usual flashes, and then the next three got in line. "Transfer! Scanner! Localization! Transfer! Scanner! Localization!" That now accounted for everyone but him and Kelly.

"Jeremie! I'm ready on this end! Get to the scanners!" Matt called over the comm. system.

"Hurry! Only a few more seconds left!" Aelita called urgently over the same channel.

"OK, here it goes! Transfer: Jeremie, Kelly! Scanner: Jeremie, Kelly! Localization!" They disappeared just as the two trains collided.

* * *

Lyoko: Hideout, 8:14 AM local, 12/27 

"YES! I WIN!" XANA said, celebrating his first victory. Then he checked the factory map, only to find… "NOOOOOOOOO!" _Matt… I swear, this isn't over…_

Woodland Park (WP): Matt's house, 1:14 AM local, 12/27

During the transfer, Jeremie felt a force that he'd never felt before. It was like he was being torn apart. He wanted to scream, but he couldn't. He endured the pain, and then saw a white light in front of him through all the swirling colors around him. He reached out his hand…

…and tumbled out of the Remo-Scanner in Matt's house, falling flat on his face. "Ow…"

"Have a nice ride?" Matt said, as Kelly flew out in a similar fashion across the room.

Ulrich and Yumi went over to the window. "Uh, Matt… what's this white stuff?" Ulrich said.

Odd went over, and his face lit up. "I'll tell you what it is: SNOW!" He wanted to go outside, but obviously he couldn't.

"You are aware that it's 1 AM here, right?" Matt asked pointedly.

"Oh… whoops…" Odd said quietly, realizing that there were likely to be other people in this house.

"I'm going to say hi to my parents, OK?" Kelly said. "I'll be right back." Joe and Sissi followed her out the door and across town.

* * *

WP: Street, 1:16 AM local, 12/27 

The three siblings walked down Route 67, Sissi shivering all the way. "How can you stand it? It's so cold here…"

"Remember, we've lived here almost our whole lives. We're used to the cold. Kadic is hot by comparison," Joe replied.

Kelly stopped and turned to Sissi. "Since we have so much powder here, we like to throw snowballs at each other. Here, I'll show you how to make one." Her chills forgotten, Sissi spent a few minutes pegging Kelly and Joe with snowballs, only to get hit herself a few times. Then they decided to keep moving, as it was getting colder now that they were soaked. They soon arrived at Kelly's house.

* * *

WP: Kelly's house, 1:23 AM local, 12/27 

Kelly let herself in with her key, then let her brother and sister follow her inside. She heard crying down the hall… and the TV. She realized that they must have seen it on the news. She quietly went to her parent's room.

"...of the citizens followed a mandatory evacuation order, but preliminary reports suggest that there may have still been some people at the school. A SWAT team has been dispatched to check…"

"Mom?" Kelly said tentatively.

"…Kelly?" she replied. She got up and opened the door, with the three kids on the other side. "Kelly! Joe! Sissi! You're alive!"

"Yep. But… a lot of other people died because we saved ourselves," Joe said sadly.

"What… what do you mean?"

"We had the power to save them… but we used it to save ourselves instead," Sissi explained.

"Oh… well, you're here, and that's all that matters to me. Now, why don't you go take a nap? You three look awful."

"No, not now… I need to go catch up with the others. They're probably worried sick…" Kelly said.

"OK, then. The two of us will be here if you need us." She began to break down again.

"I'll keep that in mind," Kelly said soothingly. "Bye!" She hugged her parents, then left back out the front door, and headed back to Matt's place.

* * *

WP: Matt's house, 1:34 AM local, 12/27 

"Where have you been?" Matt said sternly as Kelly came back in. "The Kadic disaster has been all over the news."

"We know… we saw it on my parent's TV." Now that she was more calm, she could admire the room itself. It was a spacious room, with red carpeting. The three scanners were smaller versions of the ones back in France, and the computer was in the middle. It had a stunning case, black with a clear side panel and cool blue neon lighting. Its screen displayed a live TV feed against a serene beach wallpaper, the feed featuring Kadic… and one of the two secret passages to the factory.

"Police discovered this secret passage through the school a few minutes ago, which goes to a factory across a sewer tunnel. We're getting word that this factory has a large computer in it, which is apparently a secret military system. For that reason the factory will be left alone, as will the computer. This image was displayed on the screen of the system." The image of this reporter cut to the one thing that everyone assembled already knew: a XANA symbol.

"So, then. We can't return to Kadic for a long time now… our only choice is to find some kind of accommodations here, and hope for the best until we can go back to the factory," Matt explained.

"So you're saying…" Jeremie said, realizing the repercussions of this event.

"Yes. XANA beat us. We've failed."

-End of Episode-

* * *

Neo's Notes 

Well, that was exciting, eh? Responding to reviews (I didn't get any on Chap. 7…):

(Amy) – Nothing against sugar here. :drinks iced tea: Glad you like it.

Siberian-Tigress – More CL:CU coming right now. Enjoy.

Janika – Reintroduced Ulrich's diary in the beginning of this chapter. And your explanation of Matt's gang is here as well. Hope you like it.

Thanks for the reviews, and don't forget to review this one as well! Stay tuned for the next installment of Code Lyoko: Cyber Upgrade! This is NeoDude, and you're listening to WNEO. Until next time!


	10. Changes

10: Changes (Cruel Dilemma)

WP: Matt's house, 8 AM local, 12/27

Jeremie awoke to find himself in a sleeping bag in Matt's basement. He sat up, put on his glasses, and then the events of the past eight hours returned to him. He let out a loud groan.

Kate was near him, and already wide awake. "You know, a great man once said, 'The ends shall justify the means.' It was a famous movement in the history of the Renaissance called pragmatism."

"Really?"

"Yeah. His name was… I don't remember… Macha-something…"

"Niccolo Machiavelli," Matt corrected absently from the "minisupercomputer", as he called it, or MSC for short.

"Yeah, like I said. Machiavelli. Sheesh…" Jeremie noticed the Styrofoam cup in her hand.

"What is that, Kate?"

"It's coffee. I went over to Java the Hut this morning… it's a local coffee shop," she added, noticing the clueless look on Jeremie's face.

"Ah, OK." He understood now… maybe.

"Hey, Matt," Kate called. "How about we leave at 10 and head over to the Hungry Bear for breakfast?"

"Works for me. Make sure everyone is wearing something decent… and warm."

"Or decently warm?" The three laughed at Kate's play on words. "OK, let's get everyone up and dressed," she added to Jeremie. He nodded and yanked Ulrich's earplugs out, then moved on to Odd, pinching his nose shut – he could sleep through a sonic shockwave, but obviously needed his nose. In one motion, he woke and swiped at Jeremie's hand. _That_ triggered Ulrich to wake up, which seemed to have a telepathic effect that caused Yumi to stir. Meanwhile, Kate had succeeded in waking the others, and they were now one big happy family that numbered eleven. Kate proceeded to lead everyone but Jeremie upstairs to meet Matt's parents.

"Jeremie," Matt said. It was more of a command than a request.

"Yeah?"

"Actually, Kate's got a point. Just because we lost one battle, doesn't mean we've lost the war. We can make a comeback, and take it to XANA on his own turf." There was fire in his eyes. "He will pay for the lives he's taken." He suspended the MSC and headed upstairs, Jeremie following along.

It just so happened that the local WB station was showing a marathon of Megaman that morning. After Jeremie got dressed and met Matt's parents, he joined Kelly and the others in the living room. "Hey, Jeremie! Come watch this!" Kelly called to him. He came over and sat down.

Kelly knew for a fact that this was the part where…

The boy on the screen shouted, "Jack in! Megaman! Power up!" Jeremie realized that this was where she'd gotten her catchphrase from.

"Sound familiar?" she said with a wink.

"Well, that explains that…"

"Come on, let's get going!" Kate said impatiently.

"Well, since everyone's ready… OK, let's go," Matt conceded. They left out the front door.

* * *

WP: Restaurant, 9 AM local, 12/27 

The gang arrived at the eatery, and the waitress recognized Matt immediately... and then noticed the size of the group. "Just a minute..." she said, hurrying into the back room. A few minutes later, she came back, and led them to a table. They took a minute to look at the menus, and then set them down when they decided – it appeared that the waitress was busy again.

"So, Matt. When does school start here?" Jeremie asked.

"In a few more days... Wednesday, to be exact."

"Really? In the middle of the week?"

"Yeah. We never got it, either."

"Does it have internet?"

"Yeah. In fact, they're adding wireless in the library a few blocks over... but it's going to be super-powered, and they say it reaches all the way to the school."

"In that case we'll try it later." The waitress returned then, and they ordered their food, and then settled in to wait... it seemed that the flow was thinning out some, but it was still busy. Matt saw Jeremie's concerned look around. "Don't worry, it's always this busy," he assured.

"Oh, and one other thing: How do you get to the scanners in an emergency?"

"Ah, that's through the E-Ports. They're teleportation devices that we have scattered through the city, and in a few locations in Colorado Springs."

"How are they used?"

"They're controlled via passworded terminals, with a password of LYOKO. Then it activates, and you have 30 seconds to step in and press the little button on the inside. Easy enough." He was cut off by the waitress returning with their food. They all ate quickly, and then they paid and left in the general direction of the library.

* * *

WP: High school south entrance, 9:35 AM local, 12/27 

Rather than going directly to the library, which was closed right now anyway, Matt led the way to the high school. "I've taken the liberty of forging the proper forms for you to attend WPHS… I hacked into Kadic's registry to see what you were in, and enrolled you in pretty much the same stuff here. Except that you're enrolled in advanced French classes, which would be the equivalent of middle school French for you, and… well, I'm going to have to teach you some English. But you and the rest of your team should do well with it, so I'm not too concerned. Oh, and one other thing: The teacher in the programming lab is pretty laid back, so I put you in there. Luckily you already have most of your credits to graduate, so you'll be good on that…"

Jeremie finally found a place to cut in. "Wait up! I don't plan on staying here…"

"You can't go back to Kadic. You'd die of poisons that I don't even want to consider. No, you're going to stay here. And that's final." They reached one of the entrances, with a large building next to it… or rather, what would be one if it wasn't still under construction. "OK, let's test it. Have your laptop?"

"Always." He took it out and started the Lyoko OS. It connected almost instantly… which was much faster than usual. "Wow! Yeah, it works, all right! This must be a pretty good connection… I'm running at a pretty high speed!"

"Yeah, that's that library's signal. See that big antenna?" He pointed to a _huge_ one on top of the building that Jeremie realized was the library.

"Yeah…"

"That was just installed a few days ago. It's a super-high-gain antenna that pretty much reaches from one end of Woodland Park to the other. Including the entire school building."

"Wow…"

"Hey, we're here too!" Odd called from behind them. They'd been instructed to keep themselves occupied until Jeremie and Matt came back. "Can we go somewhere now?"

"Let's head back to my house for now," Kelly suggested. "We can watch movies and stuff. I assume you wanted to take them _there_ at noon?" she added to Matt.

"Yeah, of course. If they didn't go _there_, they'd be missing out. Come on, let's head over there… I think I need to apologize to your parents." They headed back towards Kelly's house.

* * *

WP: Kelly's house, 9:45 AM local, 12/27 

The team was now actively finding something to do until ten till noon, when Kelly and Matt would take the somewhere special. In the meantime, Matt and Jeremie worked on Aelita's materialization. "I almost have it done…" Jeremie said.

"Good, let's load it up." Matt loaded the file onto his own laptop, in his advanced compiler. "You have a few critical errors here… Let me fix this." He typed for a few minutes, then turned back to Jeremie. "OK, it's done. You should be able to materialize Aelita with that, as long as you change the destination loci. We don't want her to come out into toxic gas…"

"Right. Shall we run it?"

"Not now… it's easier if we wait for XANA to attack first. That way we can return to the past and bring her with us at the same time."

"Good plan. What now, then?"

"Wait for an attack."

Aelita broke into their conversation. "Matt! Jeremie! XANA's attacking… and you won't believe what he's done! Look!" She pulled up a news clip of two bulldozers heading past the library and Java the Hut, and coming towards…

"Oh, no! They're coming this way!" Matt called, hoping the others would hear it. They did. "Yumi, Kelly, Jeremie, Odd, come with me! Now!" They ran together to Matt's house…

* * *

WP: Matt's house, 9:56 AM local, 12/27 

"He's in the Desert! Get ready, because we don't have much time!" He sent them towards their own scanners, then manned the MSC. "Transfer!" The doors slid open, and the four stepped in. "Scanner!" The scanners examined them. "Virtualization!" They disappeared, as Matt clutched four odd objects. "I _really_ don't want to use these… but I may have to. If the scanners are destroyed, half the team is out the window…"

* * *

Lyoko: Desert, 9:58 AM RWT, 12/27 

The warriors were greeted with three Blocks, who were greeted themselves with a sniper shot, a fan, and a Laser Arrow. Aelita came running up behind them, and they all ran for a time, until they saw…

"The tower!" Jeremie called out.

"Jeremie! Two Crabs!" Matt warned.

"Working on it now!" Yumi replied. She hit one, and Odd stunned the other one, which Yumi finished off. Aelita, had, meanwhile, reached the tower, and entered the code… but nothing happened.

"Matt! Is this tower a dud?"

"No…" Matt frantically scanned the incoming data log and found what he needed. "I was afraid of this. He's blocked the code until his attack itself is stopped."

"How do we do that?"

"_You_ don't. Jeremie does. Sit tight for a few more minutes." He switched over to Jeremie's team. "Guys, bad news. Aelita's code is blocked. You'll have to stop the bulldozers here first."

"And how do we do that? We're not superheroes…" Kelly questioned.

"Ah, but you are. I've developed a special system that allows you to virtualize into the real world in your Lyoko forms. I call it… the Blast Disk! Basically, when something like this happens, I activate the Digizone, which covers the entire town in a special dome that allows digital beings to exist here, provided they're based on a physical form. Then you come here with the power of the Lyoko Blast, and finish what Aelita started. Two things, though: one, your change back instantly if you run out of Life, and two, if you leave the dome, it's like falling off a ledge: no turning back."

"Well, I don't think we have a choice in the matter…" Jeremie admitted. "Let's go for it!"

"Good answer. Take the disk that will appear in front of you." Jeremie snatched the disk from the air. "Now hold it up… yeah, like that, good… and then call out, 'Blast Disk execute! Lyoko Blast activate!' You'll show up in the Remo-Scanners, in your Lyoko forms,"

"OK, then! Blast Disk execute! Lyoko Blast activate!" He was encased in a column of light, and disappeared from Lyoko.

* * *

WP: Matt's house, 10:03 AM local, 12/27, Digizone active 

Jeremie returned to the Remo-Scanner, which sild open for him, as did the three of his friends. They all came out in their Lyoko forms… but that was itself a small problem. The other three, not being used to these forms, stumbled out of the scanners.

_Oh, no…_ Jeremie thought. _None of us are used to our Lyoko forms in Earth… we'll have to be careful._ He led the others up the stairs, Matt behind them. They ran from the house, looking for the bulldozers. The sky had been replaced with a tessellation of translucent, vaguely multi-colored hexagons. "Which way?" Jeremie wondered out loud.

"Follow the pollution," Odd suggested, indicating a trail of smog off in one direction. "Let's go!" They kept running until they reached the top of a large hill, and two large objects could be seen. "Look!" Odd cried. "There they are! Attack!" He then raised his arm as Yumi grabbed her fan, Jeremie his gun, and Kelly her rifle. "FIRE NOW!" Odd called. "Laser Arrow!"

"Format!" Jeremie called a bit to Odd's right, as the girls released their weaponry. The four shots were headed in the right direction… but were a bit off, with Jeremie hitting one of the bulldozers in the front glass pane, shattering it, Kelly hitting its smokestack, Odd going over it entirely, and Yumi hitting a mailbox a few yards in front of it.

"Guys, be careful! You're not used to your powers in the real world yet… get closer and try again!" Matt called. "Oh, and Jeremie…" The others ran ahead and down the hill, Jeremie waiting to hear Matt out. "I found another Power in your character card. It allows you to spend Life to create new temporary Abilities or weapons that are lost when you leave your digital form. Give it a try. It's called 'Subroutine.'"

"OK, here we go! Subroutine!" Jeremie glowed, then the glow was dispelled, and a large bazooka replaced it. "Wow, cool!"

"Enjoy," Matt said with a smirk.

"Don't I always? Thanks!" Jeremie replied, running downhill to catch up with the others.

Downhill, Yumi had decided on a jumping slash after arming herself with some PVC pipe. "Hi-yah!" she shouted, heading straight for the bulldozer. But it caught her in its scoop, and, turning so that its back was to a conveniently place edge of the dome, flung Yumi backwards.

"NO! YUMI!" Jeremie called from the top of the hill. She hit the dome, sending sparks flying as she collided with it, and then she shattered into a large swarm of ones and zeroes, before her data was absorbed by the dome. "No…" Jeremie became enraged. "_XANA! You'll pay for that!_" He seemed to fly forward, not quite touching the ground. He strafed the bulldozer and, getting far enough away, blasted it into oblivion. It turned to binary before being sucked up into the Digizone. "Still want more? Here, have some!" He fired again, utterly destroying the other bulldozer. He then came to a rest near his other remaining friends. "Yumi… I'm so sorry…" Jeremie said sadly to the sky. The hexagonal dome began to fall away shape by shape, and the Lyoko warriors were each encased in a tower of white light, and replaced with their normal forms – all but Jeremie.

"Jeremie," Matt said sadly, coming down the hill. Jeremie had, meanwhile, fallen to his knees, and begun to cry. "You need to return to normal. The verbal command is 'Dispel.'"

"Dispel…" Jeremie said lifelessly. He glowed white and returned to his normal appearance, with binary code appearing in front of him and reforming into the Blast Disk, which fell to the ground.

"Matt… I'm so tired…" Odd panted. He then fell to the ground with a dull thud, followed by Kelly at his side.

"Jeremie! We can bring Yumi back!" Matt pleaded.

"How?" Jeremie sobbed. "She's gone! You said it yourself – it's like falling off a ledge!"

"But we have something special for this. Remember? We were going to virtualize Aelita."

"But it won't be the same without –" Jeremie stopped in mid-sentence, his sadness gone. "Yumi! We can bring her back!"

"Exactly. Now then, shall we?"

"Not at the moment… I'm really tired…" No longer running on pure adrenaline or sorrow, he was totally drained, and collapsed to the ground.

"Aelita! Go ahead," Matt said into his headset.

"Understood." She entered the code again, and it took.

"Return to the past, now!" The tower was engulfed with white light, and half a world away, a dome with the power to change time and space itself expanded to cover Woodland Park…

* * *

WP: Matt's house, 9:45 AM local, 12/27 

"NO! YUMIIII!" Ulrich called to the heavens, standing in the middle of the street. He'd just been told about the small problem they'd had. He practically beat down the door to Matt's house and ran to the scanner room to find…

"Here we go! Materialization! Yumi! _Execute!_" Jeremie called, mashing the enter button on the MSC. Scanner #1 was filled with light as the program ran, then dimmed back to normal room lighting as the door slid open to reveal the girl that Jeremie had worried about so much, looking almost like she was asleep. In a millisecond, Ulrich was there as Yumi fell, completely out of energy.

"Yumi… are you OK?" Ulrich whispered.

Yumi opened her eyes. "Ulrich…"

"She'll be OK, Ulrich," Matt assured. "Just give her a few minutes."

"Matt… thanks," Ulrich said.

End of Episode

* * *

Neo's Notes 

Another chapter down… anyone who catches the direction this may go in regards to other series, you get a cookie. Anyway, responding to Ch. 9 reviews:

Janika: It's different on its own. I'm just making them less perfect.

Siberian-Tigress: Matt is the leader of the old Lyoko team, from four years ago – thus, when they were freshmen themselves, and they would have been seniors when Yumi arrived. Josh, Sam, and Kate are the other three Lyoko warriors.

Sorry this one took so long, BTW: I had other things I was doing. I'll try not to make it a habit. Keep the reviews coming! This is Neo, and I'll catch you next time on CL: CU! Oh, and don't forget to check out my other fics… when I update them, that is. Laters!


	11. Possession

11: Possession (Image Problem)

* * *

WP: Teen Center – Outside, 12:01 PM local, 12/27 

Matt led the march past the library and to a small, white building. It had a brick smokestack, and… a pool table? "Matt, what is this place?" Yumi asked.

As if on cue, they reached the top of the stairs and the door swung open to reveal an older woman inside. "Ah, Matt, you're here! Hello, everyone. This is the Teen Center."

"I've got this, but thanks." The woman took the hint and went back inside, allowing the pack to enter. Inside, it was a tad small – especially with the eleven of them together – but it wasn't too bad. Matt entered all their names on the sign-in sheet by the door, and they filed in. "Hey, Daniel," Matt called in the pool room.

A black-haired boy acknowledged him, then walked over to him. "Hey, Matt. Are these –" he glanced at the others – "friends of yours?"

"Yeah. Just came from France… Come on, I'll explain." Jeremie suspected that Matt had been telling Daniel how things were going with Lyoko all this time, but knew it wasn't his place to say anything. "Oh, where are my manners? Guys, this is Daniel. He goes to WPHS… he's pretty cool. If you ever need help, ask him. But don't make him mad, or the coroner will be wondering exactly which mob boss you pissed off." Daniel chuckled, and the others laughed nervously. "Anyway! Now then, this is Jeremie, Yumi, Ulrich, Odd, and Sissi, and you already know Kelly, Joe, and my crew. They just got here from France… remember that train crash thing? Toxic gases and all? These guys were the only hope… but they got shot down by you-know-who."

"XANA?"

"Right. So they had to bail out and come here. Anyway, they're all a tight-knit bunch, but they appear to assimilate new members quickly," he went on, glancing at Sissi.

"Well, then, let this be your official welcome to Woodland Park. Have a nice stay… and try not to blow us up. We're kinda attached to the place." Now the whole gang laughed. "Anyway, let me give you the grand tour of the place." He got up from his seat under the stereo, and began to walk towards the kitchen area. "Well, our core source of income is the fridge and the cabinet. We sell all kinds of snack foods, and for cheaper than the school or the local businesses are asking. You'll have to ask one of the adults to open it first, though." He moved into a room with a huge TV. "TV room… we have lots of movies." They sat and watched _2 Fast 2 Furious_ for a few minutes before moving on.

He opened a door, and revealed a room with a PC and a PS2… and a boy floating up and out the window? (NN: See bottom. It's in another fic.) Daniel looked at this event, with his mouth open. Once the boy was gone, Daniel regained his composure. "Uh… Anyway! This is our gaming room. We also have lots of board games, and some arts and crafts stuff." He moved to the next room. "Air hockey room. That's the sole feature. Be careful here, flying pucks are dangerous. We've already lost two windowpanes in the last few months. If you're going to be in this room, grab that sled on the floor and use it as a shield. It works quite well." He moved past a girl and a guy playing… the girl was winning by about 10 points. The guy looked pretty sad about it, but Daniel moved so fast, the others didn't have time to care. "OK, next feature: Kelly, the supervisor. No relation to this Kelly, of course." Daniel turned to the woman in the small room. She had a soft, calm look, which put the French half of the party at ease. "Hey, Kelly. I come bearing visitors."

"Afternoon, everyone. I'm Kelly, and I run the Teen Center. And, assuming Daniel hasn't said it yet, welcome to Woodland Park." She turned back to Daniel. "Did you hear about that horrible train wreck in France?"

"Actually, these guys are from the crash site. They went to school a few miles away."

"But… how did they get here…?"

"Their tech genius here brought them over in a teleporter," Daniel explained, indicating Jeremie. "Of course, Kelly and Matt are smart cookies themselves…" Kelly and Matt blushed, but it was more Kelly than Matt.

"Well, we can always use more geniuses. Welcome to the Teen Center! Now, I need to get back to this nasty paperwork… ugh…" She grimaced, and turned back to her screen.

"Hey, Kelly… Let me see that," the other Kelly said. The older one moved aside, and the girl examined the Excel spreadsheet. "Let me add in some formulas…" A few minutes later, the spreadsheet was now full of formulas, and quite automated.

"Wow… I don't know how to thank you," the older one said.

"Um –"

All of a sudden, Matt's cell phone rang. "Hello?" His face turned serious. "Aelita? What? Dang! OK, we'll be right there!" He hung up. "Guys, code red! Let's get moving!" They all ran out of the Teen Center and back to Matt's house.

* * *

WP: Matt's house, 12:36 PM local, 12/27

"Hurry!" They all ran down to the scanners. "Get ready! Aelita needs us in the Forest region… I'm putting the scanners in 'mass transit' mode – just jump in, and you'll show up in Lyoko. I'd tell you how I did it, but now's not a good time." He turned to the computer. "Here we go! Mass Transit!" The scanners all slid open suddenly, with a rainbow-colored light shining out. The gang all went inside.

* * *

Lyoko: Forest, 12:39 PM RWT, 12/27

The gang arrived just in time. Aelita was being attacked by a pair of Blocks. "Anna! Status report!" Kelly called.

"I've got status cards for the Blocks, and Aelita. Want to see them?" the AI replied.

"Please." Her view was overlaid with the three status cards.

* * *

Block(1)

HP: 10/10

Ammo: Inf

Status: Attacking

* * *

Block(2)

HP: 10/10

Ammo: Inf

Status: Defending Block(1)

* * *

"Punk! Take this!" Odd shot one with a Laser Arrow, and the second card blinked urgently at Kelly, now showing 5 HP left. She then looked at the last card.

* * *

Aelita

HP: 90/150

No weapon

Status: Evading attack

Skill: Synthesize (Inactive)

U. Skill: State Change (Inactive)

* * *

"Well, then…" Aelita appeared to have been under attack for quite some time now. "Aelita's taken 60 damage, guys…" Kelly relayed to the others. "Let's finish those Blocks off." Ulrich stabbed the first one, causing it to disappear, as Yumi's fan tore a hole through the other one. Both cards were covered by a big red X before disappearing from Kelly's view. Her friends' cards, and her own, also overlaid themselves:

* * *

Kelly

HP: 150/150

Ammo: 10/10

Status: Idle

Skill: Recover (Inactive, 5 uses left)

U. Skill: State Change (Inactive)

* * *

Odd

HP: 150/150

Ammo: 14/15

Status: Idle

Power: Future Sight (Inactive)

* * *

Ulrich

HP: 150/150

Ammo: Inf

Kills: 1

Status: Idle

Power: Triplicate (Inactive, available)

Power: Fusion (Inactive)

* * *

Yumi

HP: 150/150

Ammo: Inf

Kills: 1

Status: Idle

Power: Telekinesis (Inactive, available)

* * *

Joe

HP: 150/150

Ammo: 15/15

Status: Idle

Power: Stealth Sneak (Inactive)

* * *

Jeremie

HP: 150/150

Ammo: 20/20

Status: Idle

Power: Edit Source (Inactive, available)

Power: Subroutine (Inactive, available)

* * *

That was the end of her set of cards… Matt's team had preferred to watch this battle from afar, in case they were needed as backup later. Then something clicked in Kelly's mind. _Wait… I didn't have a regular Power before…_She looked at it. _Recover…?_ "Hey, Matt!" Kelly called.

"Right here. What's up?"

"Did I have a Power before?"

"No… why?"

"Because I do now. Look at my card…"

He looked. "What the…? When did you get this?" He sounded surprised. "Well, test it out. If it does what I think it does, it'll make keeping Aelita alive even easier."

"OK, then… Recover!" As soon as she said it, her shoes glowed white, and then the glow spread out around her, encompassing all of her friends.

She then noticed Aelita's card blinking, "HP+57 – HP: 147/150"

Kelly was shocked into silence. "Wha… what… it worked?"

"Indeed. Your Power appears to heal others near you… but it only works so many times each visit to Lyoko." He laughed. "What luck! Well, enjoy…"

The gang moved ahead until they saw a pack of Hornets ahead, who hadn't noticed the warriors yet. "OK… here we go!" Kelly sniped every last one, eating up six of her bullets. "That was easy."

"Yeah, I wonder why –" Yumi began, but stopped suddenly.

"Yumi?" Ulrich said as he turned to find…

"She's GONE?" Aelita cried.

"But how?" Jeremie wondered out loud.

"Good question," Matt chipped in. "In any case, the tower isn't active anymore… is it possible that Yumi and the tower are connected? Come on out, guys. Well done."

* * *

WP: Matt's house, 12:47 PM local, 12/27

"So, what do you guys want to do now?" Matt asked.

"Hmm… all the good soaps are on right now… who's with me?" Kelly asked.

"Nobody, I don't think…" Aelita cut in. "Matt, another tower's been activated… and you'll notice a certain person in the real world." She brought up a feed from a street camera. It showed a black-haired girl walking down the street…

"Yumi!" Ulrich and Jeremie said in unison.

"Right… but… she never came back from Lyoko," Matt said slowly. "How is she here now?"

"I think… I think it might have been a Guardian," Aelita replied, her voice full of dread.

"A Guardian?" Odd asked.

"Put simply, it's a data trap," Matt explained. "It sucks something in, and can do one of two things to it: simply trap it, which makes it invisible, or create a copy, which may or may not have modified source code, but makes the Guardian visible both to us and to scans."

"OK… how do we get her back?" Ulrich asked.

"Well, since she's data and she's in the real world, you'll have to Blast."

"Blast being a short form for Lyoko Blast?" Jeremie wondered.

"Of course."

"OK, then… ready, guys?" Jeremie began, ready to take the lead.

"Hold it!" Matt interrupted. "I have an upgrade to the technology for you guys. Now you can activate it from the real world!"

"Really? Cool!" Odd exclaimed.

"BUT, as a fail-safe, it only works if a tower is active, or if I set permissions."

"Aww…"

"Now, then, shall we try it out?" He passed out disks.

"Sure! Let's go, team!" Jeremie ran up the stairs, the rest of his team fanned out behind him.

* * *

WP: Smoker's Corner, 12:53 PM local, 12/27

As Yumi walked up the street towards the Teen Center, she noticed a tessellation appear in the sky. "Hmm, they're going to try that? Well, good luck to them…"

"Stop!" a voice called from in front of her. It was Ulrich.

"You." She said it with a disgusted voice.

"OK, guys, time to Blast!" Jeremie held up the CD, his friends doing the same around him. "Blast Disk, execute! Lyoko Blast! Activate!" The five of them changed to their new forms, and got ready for battle.

"Heh… Smoker's Corner. Go figure that you guys would battle here…" Matt said from behind them, not changing into his Lyoko form, but armed with a laptop, instead.

"Why IS this place called that?"

"Smoker's Corner is where the high school students go when they need a puff. It's just outside of the school zone where they're illegal to have, so they think they're safe here. But it is a working storage area."

"Go figure, indeed. You'll all die in the place where so many speed their own," Yumi said.

"Stop. We already know you're not Yumi, so give it up," Ulrich spat.

"And what does that prove? That I'm not her? OK, then… there are many Goths in this town. You've got nothing."

"That's all I need." He moved as if to shut her up with a kiss, but she got out of the way. "And there's the proof. Yumi is not only slower, but she wouldn't move away from me that easily. Admit it, slave of XANA."

"Well, so you proved it this time. No matter. You still have to beat me in order to save yourselves… and I don't see that happening," the fake Yumi said.

"Oh, really?" Matt cut in. "Bravo Team! How's it going?" he said into his headset mic.

A voice played from the speakers so all could hear. It was Kate. "Everything's great here! No problems at all. Josh and I are still at full power."

"Excellent. Almost at the tower?"

"Actually… yeah, that's it right there! I just spotted it. We'll be there soon. Good luck on your end!" Matt pressed a button, presumably to switch the headset back to its own speaker. He turned back to the fake Yumi. "Well, then… it looks like our ace is still very much in hand. Now then, you can tell us where the real Yumi is, or we can delete you," he said with malice. "And I'm sure you won't like the second option."

"You want a fight? Fine, then… bring it on!" She jumped at then, ready to battle, with a katana in hand.

"I'll do this, guys." Ulrich stepped forward and drew his sword. "Here we go!" He parried every attack coming at him, adding some of his own.

"She's down to 100 HP, Ulrich! Keep it up!" Matt called. Everyone but Joe and Ulrich returned to normal. Then they promptly sat down and watched the show. Ulrich continued to deliver slash after slash to the impostor. Then she fell to one knee.

"Stop, warrior. I concede defeat."

"I will accept, on one condition: Tell me where the real Yumi is."

"In the Forest, on the stump…" She fizzled and disappeared.

"Nice sword work, Ulrich," Odd said.

"Yeah, nice job," Matt added. Then he pressed the button on his headset again. "Now, then… Bravo! Yumi is on a stump in the Forest region."

"We already heard, and we're about there now… she'll be at the scanners when you get here. Kate out." Matt pressed the button once more.

About a minute later, after Ulrich and Joe had changed back as well, Matt looked up from his laptop. "Well, she's back, so we can turn back the clock now. Return to the past, now!" A white light spread across the ocean to the City Above the Clouds...

* * *

WP: Teen Center, 12:14 PM local, 12/27

"What is this, now… the third time we've lived this day?" Matt complained quietly to his friends.

"Yeah. Now sit down or get out! We're trying to watch this!" Ulrich told him. The gang laughed.

* * *

-Neo's Notes-

OK, first off, I want to apologize for the EXTREMELY long wait for this chapter. Second, I want to thank the real people in this chapter: Kelly, the former full-time supervisor of the Teen Center, and Daniel, who goes to my high school and frequents the Teen Center. Hope you like it!

Now, reader response:

Liquid-Wolf: Great to see you here, Wolf. And it's good to hear you like the story. Enjoy!

Janika: I think I got what you were saying, but please remember in the future that you're talking to someone with barely a HS senior's vocab…

One other thing. I mentioned, in the "dude floating out the window" scene, another fic. This fic is actual fiction called "TC Blast!" which is not in a presentable form at this time. When it is, I'll let you all know. Thanks for reading this chapter, and tune in again soon! This is Alan, and you're listening to WNEO. Laters.


	12. Intermission: Triple Triangle

12: Intermission – Triple Triangle

WP: Kelly's house, 4:56 PM local, 12/27

After the wild ride with the Yumi clone and the subsequent time spent chilling at the Teen Center, the gang had returned back to Matt and Kelly's houses for a needed break. But something was troubling Ulrich…

_I know that Sissi still likes me… and I know Yumi does, too. I'm not too concerned about Yumi, but what do I do if Sissi comes to me? What's more, what do I do if that happens while Yumi is right near me? That would be bad…_

At that exact moment, Jeremie walked up to him. "Ulrich… there's something up."

"Lead the way…" Jeremie led him out to the MSC. He sat in the chair. Ulrich looked at the screen, but saw nothing out of the ordinary, though he realized what was open: his own card. "What's going on?"

"I found an anomaly in your Abilities section…"

"Engligh, Einstein."

"Right. Something is in the Abilities part of your computer code that shouldn't be. I don't know if it's XANA or not, but I'm going to look into it. I just wanted to warn you that, during that time, one of two things will happen: one, you lose Triplicate while on Lyoko; or two, you suddenly Triplicate here on Earth without a Digizone. Possibly both at once. Is that OK, or should I leave it alone?"

Ulrich thought about it. _Wait… this is perfect! If there are three of me, I can have the clones check out what Yumi and Sissi think of me!_ "It's fine with me, Jer," he said, trying to keep a straight face.

"OK, thanks. That's all for now."

"Well, see you later, then." He went back to his "bed"… repeating the day didn't help the status of his accommodations at all, though they'd been upgraded to makeshift cots in four different rooms. _Well… I think I'm going to go to bed now before XANA can force us to make it four times we've lived this day…

* * *

_

WP: Kelly's house, 7:30 AM local, 12/28

For the first time in a long time, Ulrich found that he'd opened his eyes to a new day. _Ah, finally… What is it now, Wednesday?_

_Tuesday._

_Duh. We all knew that…_

_Oh, right… hey, wait a second!_ Ulrich sat upright… and found two copies of himself, dressed in his normal clothes, near him. _He was right! It did happen! This is perfect…

* * *

_

Yumi had woken up only a few minutes ago. She looked out the window. _Ah, what a nice day…_ She then heard someone approaching. She turned to find… "Ulrich?"

"Hi, Yumi." He moved over to the bed where she'd been sleeping. "Can we talk about something?"

"Uh… sure." From others, Yumi was learning that when your friend wanted to "talk," it was either something good, or something bad. They never wanted just to "talk."

"Um…" He appeared to be struggling to get it out. "Do you like me, Yumi?"

They both blushed. "Well… yes. I do, Ulrich."

"Really? I feel the same way…"

And the moment felt right… Ulrich kissed her. When it was over, they blushed like mad. "I'll see you later, OK?"

"OK. Bye, Ulrich…" She couldn't keep him here, obviously. But… something seemed off about him…

* * *

In another room nearby, Sissi had been on her bed, writing in her diary.

_Dear Diary,_

_I love Ulrich so much… I wish he'd just accept that he has feelings for me, but he's still with Yumi… although they do seem right for each other. But I still wish he was mine… Oh, well. I can come back to that topic when we return to Kadic._

She returned the book to its hiding place just before Ulrich came in to greet her… wait, Ulrich?

"Hi, Sissi. How are you today?"

"I'm good. How are you, Ulrich?" She knew something was up here… Ulrich didn't just come up to her for no reason.

"Pretty good. But I have a question I want to ask you." He sat down on the bed next to her.

All of a sudden, Sissi detected that this might just be something in her favor. She blushed a little. "Yes, Ulrich?" He was right next to her, invading her space… but she liked it.

"Sissi… do you like me?"

"Uh…" She wasn't ready for THAT question. But still… "Oh, yes, Ulrich!" She kissed him, stopping any impending answer on his part. When they broke off, Ulrich excused himself, leaving Sissi alone on cloud 9.

* * *

_Hmm… it appears we could have a problem here._ The two clones came back in. _Good job, guys. Thanks! Now, then…_ "Fusion!" he said quietly. The clones disappeared. _Now that I know where I stand… what now?

* * *

_

Neo's Notes

OK, all, this one was a short chapter to address the problem of Ulrich's two loves. Kudos to Janika on this one for the idea of Ulrich's Triplicate in the real world.

Review response:

Janika – You know, I think that's one of the best things I've heard all day. Go figure. Thanks for trying to keep up with me.

Siberian-Tigress – Don't worry, it's coming.

And fear not, everyone: The next chapter will be longer, I promise. Later!


	13. Continuance

13: Intermission – Continuance

WP: Kelly's house, 8:32 AM local, 5/20

Well, it had been several months since we'd arrived from France and landed ourselves in Woodland Park. It was a new place to us, but we were getting to know it regardless… and it was starting to feel like home. Especially to me, mainly since it was my home to begin with. Kadic was still airing out from all the gas… we were probably going to be stuck here at least through the summer, if not even longer. But at least we were going to be fluent in English upon our return…

By now, we knew most of the town _very_ well. And that was going to come in handy tomorrow. We were going to be in a competition that would span the town, based on a TV show that aired here every once in a while – reality TV… ugh. Anyway, they'd give us picture clues and we'd go find where they led… and so on, until someone found the last clue, and we all ran like idiots back to the library where we started. The top prize was $150 to some fancy outdoors store… meh, if they had fancy water bottles and what-not, then it was fine with me. Anyway, we were taking one last walk around the town in preparation for the race the next day.

"Let's think about what some of the clues might be tomorrow," I suggested to the team. "I want the money!"

"Hmm…" Odd thought about it. "Maybe… A star and a dollar bill for Starbucks?"

"Good, Odd," Jeremie said, walking with us. "What about two parabolas for McDonalds?"

"We call them arches, but it could work," Joe replied. "And I think Taco Bell would be easy enough…"

"Of course," Ulrich agreed. "A taco and a bell… Simple, yet for someone who eats at home, difficult."

"Speaking of eating, I'm hungry…" Yumi said. "Did we ever eat?"

"Nope," I admitted. "Back to McDonalds, then?"

"Sounds good," most of the others said.

"Right, then. Let's go!" I led the march back down the hill to the world-famous eatery. After we all ordered and got our food, Odd led us back into the children's area.

"Now this… This is a location worthy of our presence!" he called out, with pride. We all laughed, like we hadn't laughed in a while. We were finally getting over the shock of losing… and allowing so many people to die. He then sat down and began to eat his bagel in peace. The rest of us also sat down, munching on our various foods. Then Jeremie realized something.

"Hey, guys… It's been almost five months since XANA's last attack… Isn't that strange?"

As if on cue, Jeremie's cell phone rang, with the special tone for Aelita. He picked it up. "Go ahead… He WHAT? No way… How?... Oh, crap. We're on our way." He hung up. "I spoke too soon. XANA's attacking… and it's going to change our plans a bit." He had our full attention now. "XANA is…" I could tell it hurt him to have to finish his sentence. "XANA is trying to destroy both Kadic and Woodland Park High," he said quietly.

Odd dropped the sandwich in his hand.

* * *

WP: Near high school east entrance, 8:46 AM local, 5/20 

XANA had rolled out some of the nearby construction vehicles for this job… but rather than build, he was trying to demolish. And this was the new wing, too… I was getting mad REALLY mad. "You can take over my bus, you can control a train, you can even mess with Jim or something! But _don't touch my school!_" Without me doing anything, the Blast Disk I now kept in my pocket at all times, went off. After a moment I reappeared in my Lyoko form, sniper rifle in hand. I took aim, and shot out its vent pipe. It noticed me, and I saw an opening in the front of its hood, revealing the radiator cap. I shot it, venting steam and making it much hotter over there. Then, I shot the engine, piercing it and stopping the thing. Then the other things turned to me…

From all around me, I heard my friends activate their Blasts… and I now had backup. I jumped to the school's roof, while Ulrich began to hack at the intruders. "Get out of my town!" Yumi's fan tore through the machines, and Jeremie shot at what he could hit, while the others killed everything they could. In time the machines began to fall… but had we been fast enough?

I got my answer from a look at the new addition. Two upper level classrooms, one English and one Spanish… wait, today was a teacher inservice day! They were in there! "You guys keep them busy! I'm going to rescue the teachers inside!" And I climbed on some debris until I got to Mrs. Reif's room, the English classroom. It looked like she'd been finishing up grades before finals next week, but that stopped when her walls were ripped off.

"Mrs. Reif, we need to get out of here…" I said to her, panicking because I needed to get to Mrs. Dettenrieder's room too…

She glanced at me, amused. "Why are you dressed like that…?" Then she looked back where her window should have been. "But you do have a point. Considering I saw you fighting those things, I imagine you have a plan?"

I winced. "Nope, that would be too easy… Can I get you to grab Mrs. D while I get Mr. Martin and the other counselors? I'll meet you back up here."

"Sure thing, Kelly. Good luck." She grabbed her gradebook and other important things, while I ran out and down the stairs.

As I hit the landing, I pulled my rifle back out and added a few shots to the mix outside before running past to Counseling. I ran into Mr. Martin's open office. "Mr. Martin… We need to get out of here."

"Kelly? I saw you outside… What's going on?"

"Long story short: Evil presence has possessed construction equipment, and it's trying to destroy the school."

"Yeah, I saw stuff falling from the addition… I imagine we need to get out of here?"

"That would be good… Get all the other counselors out too, then go meet Mrs. Reif upstairs. All of you need to make your way to the other entrance and get out of here… this wing isn't safe." I ran out and headed for Mr. Smith's room, the programming room. After a short jog, I got there. On the way it occurred to me that there were more machines in the back of the school… I needed to get him out of there. I burst into the room, finding him playing his usual computer poker game. "Mr, Smith, we need to get out of here!"

"Hmm… ace-queen of hearts…" He wasn't listening.

"Mr. Smith!" I called sharply.

"Huh? Oh, Kelly," he said, noticing me. "Why are you here on an inservice? Don't you have something better to do than bug me?" he complained.

"Not when it'll save your life…" As if on cue, a bulldozer broke through the back wall.

Smith swore, which wasn't uncommon. "Well, what are you waiting for? Let's go!" I led him out the door, the bulldozer trying to give chase but getting hung up on the stairs. As we passed the old counseling office, I noticed that the door was open… and a steamroller was waiting outside.

"Not this way… come on!" I next tried a door out the side of the gym… a tar sprayer was out there, and it looked about ready to let a load rip. "Ack! Run!" We went back inside, and towards the last exit, out by Coach Holley's room. I stopped in there to get him out. "Coach, we need to go…"

"I heard… lots of frantic e-mails from other teachers, and a ton of people going through. Well, let's go, then, Kelly," he said, getting up and following me.

I then led them both to the last exit, on the west end, and not blocked. I helped them out, and removed them to the parking lot, where they got in their cars and drove away, while I noticed the counselors, Mrs. Reif, and Mrs. D also driving away. "And now, to finish this…" I went back over to the others. "Guys, it looks like the evac is taken care of. Let's finish this!"

In front of me, Ulrich called out, "Triplicate!" He split into three, then ran at the remaining vehicles. With the building clear, they all went full force, and I joined in, blasting like there was no tomorrow. After a few minutes more, the rage of the machines had ended, and we all changed back to human form. Jeremie turned his laptop on, and called up Sarah. "What's the word on Kadic?"

"It's looking bad, Jer. The main school building and dorms A, B, and D are heavily damaged. Aelita appears to be shielding dorm C to protect the terminal, but she can't last long. I think… either you need to go there, or Kadic is doomed. And the factory will surely be next." She sighed, then went on. "I think the gas has diffused enough that you can stay for a short time without danger."

"Then we'll go," Ulrich said, turning to walk away. "We have to save our home."

"I'm in," Yumi agreed.

"You've got me on board," Odd added cheerfully.

"And of course I'm coming," Jeremie confirmed. "Which leaves…"

"Even though this is my home… I'll protect yours. You've done so much for us, and for me…" I stopped, afraid I'd start crying. Jeremie came to me and hugged me.

"It's going to be OK… Now, let's go kick some XANA tail!" And we headed for the scanners to return to Kadic.

* * *

WP: Matt's house, 9:24 AM local, 5/20 

"If we can even combat this, it has to be as a team," Matt said gravely. "There's no way we can divide on this one. Kadic is too big a place and XANA's powers over there are too strong. And Jeremie won't be able to fight on this one… we need someone with remote control, even if they're in the real world." He stopped, getting an idea. "Wait, better idea: I'll go with you. And Joe's coming, too… He created XANA, and he's going to fight by our side to defeat him."

"What? I'm coming, too?" Joe argued.

"Your creation, your battle. It's that easy," Matt said, with an air of finality. "Now then, I'm activating Mass Transit… ready to go, everyone?"

"Yeah, we're ready. Let's get this fight started," I said.

"Right, then… Kelly, you can jump in first."

After a deep breath, I jumped into the scanner.

* * *

Kadic: Scanner room, 4:26 PM local, 5/20 

I came out of the scanner into a pool of green gas, and an otherwise normal scanner room. I suspected I'd fall, so as I came out of the scanner, I tucked into a ball, and rolled to a safe landing. My friends came out behind me, and I ran up the stairs to the supercomputer. I could tell that Aelita was doing her best to protect the dorms, but was fighting a losing battle. I opened a comm. channel to Matt. "Is everyone through?"

"Yeah, all clear."

"OK, releasing Mass Transit… now." I heard a whirring sound as the scanners returned to normal, and feet on the stairs as the others came up to meet me. Turning to the pack behind me, I said, "OK, here's the deal. Some of us need to stay here and fight the machines, but we need some in Lyoko helping Aelita get to the tower. I'm leading the march on Kadic, and I think Jer would be best suited for the fight on Lyoko. Anyone want to volunteer?"

"I'm staying at Kadic," Ulrich said. "You need my sword for this job."

"I'm not going if Ulrich's not," Yumi added.

"And I'm staying with Ulrich, too," Sissi said.

"I'm better on Lyoko anyway… I'll help Aelita," Odd noted.

"I'm on Lyoko for this one," Joe said.

"Right, then," I concluded. "Three on Lyoko – we'll call you Red Team – and four here, which can be Blue Team. It's a good balance. If something happens on Lyoko, I'll send another one if I need to. Now, then… be careful, everyone. This could be dangerous. Now… Let's get it started! Head downstairs, Red Team, and Matt can send you off. Blue Team… Let's go." I jacked Sarah into the supercomputer, and Anna into my own headset I'd donned for this, as did the others staying here. We all pulled out our Blast Disks, and changed into our Lyoko forms. I then noticed blue numbers overlaid on my vision above where my teammates were – likely their call numbers – and HP bars. I resolved to watch these and assist as needed.

We moved out towards the school. "Blue Two… I think we should help Aelita with dorm C first."

"Good plan. I'm on it, Blue Leader." Ulrich moved towards the school, his call number glowing green for a moment. The others followed him, and I trailed behind.

Setting up to snipe, I noticed a large collection of destructive devices hacking away at the school… and three humans preparing to engage them. "Blue Team, attack!" I screamed, sniping the brutes as the others slashed and threw things. As the machines fell, a black cloud came out of each one, and flew into the sky, proving XANA's presence. We left a heap of scrap on the ground as we pounded them down, and in time we got rid of them all. But it left us really drained… I was about ready to collapse in a heap myself. But anyway…

I noticed that the shield around the dorm had fallen, so I went inside to check on the others in Lyoko. Finding Jeremie's door unlocked, I went in, released the transformation, and jacked Anna into the front port. Aelita noticed her presence and unlocked the system for me. "Kelly… it's not looking good. As soon as they went in, XANA sucked them into the Memory region… I'm unguarded, in a tower, and there's a slew of monsters around me. If I could get some backup, it would be great…"

But then I noticed something: I wasn't recovering like I should have been. Normally I'd be ready to fight again by now, but I was still trying to get my breath back. And that wasn't normal, at all. "Give me some time… I'll see what I can do." Surveying the scene on Lyoko, I found that Aelita was still in good shape, but the others in the Memory region weren't doing so hot. Jeremie was OK but running low on ammo, Joe was almost out of HP, and Odd wasn't doing too well either. But then, given the fifteen or so monsters in view… It wasn't that bad.

I returned Anna to her headset plug. "Something's wrong… I'm not recovering my strength like I should be."

"I can investigate, but not from here… Take the team with you to the scanners, and I can do a check…"

Suddenly I heard my headset flare up. "Blue Leader! I'm under heavy attack here… some backup would be great!" It was Sissi. Looking in her direction, I saw her HP bar nearly empty… which would be bad. Ulrich and Yumi were in trouble, too, but they were an unstoppable force together, so I wasn't too worried.

"I'm on my way, Blue Four." I transformed again and headed out in her direction. By the time I got to her she'd been hit a few more times, and she'd returned to normal, and was very tired, as far as I could tell.

"Kelly… something's wrong…" she panted.

"I know… but I can't do anything about it just yet. Hang in there, OK?" I turned to the enemy monsters. "Now, then… who's first?" I blew their engines out before guiding Sissi to a safe location… namely, the secret entrance to the factory from inside the school. "I need you to get to the scanners. Have Sarah do a scan to find out what's wrong, and tell me what she finds."

"OK." She went into the hole, trying to catch her breath still.

_Good luck…_ I then proceeded back outside to help Yumi and Ulrich. A quick look at their health bars revealed… Ulrich was trying to protect Yumi, but was getting slammed for it, and any second now… yeah, that was it, he just changed back. In any case Yumi was OK… for now. Appearing from behind a building, I sniped the last of them, and then waved for them to come with me. Ulrich found himself unable to walk, though, so Yumi helped him. Now it was just a simple matter of escorting them to the factory.

We finally got there a few minutes later. Sarah was finishing the scans, and I added Anna to her power. "What's the word?"

"It appears that XANA has been manipulating the gas so it saps your power, and you don't recover your strength. Basically you get tired faster, and stay that way."

"Not good… They need backup in Lyoko…"

"I'll say. The three in the Memory region are almost gone, and Aelita needs some help before the tower gets knocked into the void."

"In that case… I'm headed for Aelita. Joe, come with me. Yumi and Ulrich, go help Jeremie. It's the only way to make this work… You two go now, I'll send you." They nodded and headed down to the scanners. They let me know when they got there. "Transfer, Ulrich. Transfer, Yumi. Scanner, Ulrich. Scanner, Yumi." Their scans came up, and I saw the weakness… but I had no choice. "Virtualization!"

* * *

Lyoko: to Glacier, 4:58 PM RWT, 5/20 

From my screen, though I could see precious little, I knew the two had gotten to Lyoko safely… but had spawned with only 80 life, to their normal 150. Into the headset, I said, "Hey, you two! You only came in with 80 life, so be careful!"

"Will do…" They moved forward, and I saw three more green arrows… and a large number of red ones.

"Look sharp! The other three are just ahead, but they're under heavy attack!" I called out to them.

"I see them now. We're on our way!" They moved forward, and defended the other three from attack.

"Bro… it looks like it's our turn. Shall we?" I led him downstairs, and manned a scanner. "Ready, Anna?"

"Always. Let's roll! Transfer, Kelly! Transfer, Joe!" Our two scanners opened, and we stepped inside. "Scanner, Kelly! Scanner, Joe!" The whoosh of air came as the scanner doors closed, as always, but not expecting to be here, I had worn a skirt… I hoped nobody had rigged the scanner somehow for video… I closed my eyes. "Virtualization!" The bright flash went off…

* * *

Upstairs, a loud tone was sounding… "Oh, no… I have to do something…"

* * *

Lyoko: Glacier, 5:01 PM RWT, 5/20 

We arrived in one piece, but found ourselves with only 60 HP. I remedied that with a few uses of Heal, bringing us up to 130 each. I ran forward, seeing lots of monsters crowded around a tower. "Let's try a back way…" I ran around the mass, but left Joe to rescue Aelita. "Anna, which way to the tower?"

"Looks like straight ahead, the way you're going. But I'm seeing two Crabs ahead… be careful."

"Sure thing…" I stopped and blasted the first one, then while the second one was trying to find where the shot came from, I shot it. But I noticed that I got weaker each time I shot. Checking my character card, I found that I was down to 120 Life… and I hadn't been hit. "Anna… were there any transfer errors?"

"Log reports error code 58… Looks like you lose life each time you use a weapon, Power, or skill."

"OK, thanks…" I ran the rest of the way to the tower… and found that, as I went in, I started losing health again. Now it was a steady trickle. 119…118…117… I decided I'd prefer to finish before it hit zero. I moved to the middle of the tower, and floated to the top. It was going down much faster now. 97…91…85…79…73… I had to press on! I walked to the center of this second platform and the screen for my handprint appeared. I put my hand on it. (36…30…24…) I entered the code, panting. L…Y…O…K…

And just before I typed the last letter, I ran out of Life. I collapsed on the floor of the tower… but I didn't devirtualize. I just lay there…

"Kelly? Kelly? Speak to me! KELLY!" For all of Anna's screaming, it didn't help. I wasn't alive, I wasn't dead, I just… was.

* * *

Kadic: Factory, 5:14 PM local, 5/20 

Anna frantically opened a screen to Matt. "Matt! Kelly is down in Lyoko, and she's not getting up… or coming back."

"Not good… let me look." He browsed the data from Lyoko, and I could feel him searching my data for an anomaly. Apparently he didn't find anything. "Anna, I couldn't find anything… I think it's related to her Power for disabling towers. Something left here there… and we can't call her back. She's done for…"

"Couldn't someone just drag her outside and have a monster kill her?"

"That's the problem – it would _literally_ kill her. A character that is hit with zero Life dies. They come out of the scanner and fall on their face, never to wake up again." He sighed. "Kelly, I don't know if you can hear me… I'm doing the best I can, but it may take some time for me to help you. Just hang on 'till then!"

I heard him alright – but I couldn't do anything about it. And so I lay there until something happened…

* * *

.:Neo's Notes:. 

Another chapter over… Anyway, this one was a bit teary, eh? Responding to reviews…

Siberian-Tigress: Don't worry, more goodness on the way in regards to him.

Janika: Ulrich is going to have some work ahead of him. But it will end up tying into the story…

.:Next Time on CL:CU:.

Coming up on CL:CU! The gang is operating with the aid of Kelly! Can they still win the competition? And what happens when a trip to the movies goes wrong? Find out next time!

This is Neo, and you're listening to Code Lyoko: Cyber Upgrade on WNEO. Laters.


	14. Search

14: Search (End of Take)

Neo's Notes

One quick note: I improvised later in the chapter. Vincent Agoth, and any film(s) he may have created, do not exist, to my knowledge. If they do and/or he does, feel free to flame me for my n00bness.

* * *

Lyoko: Glacier, 5:13 PM RWT, 5/20 

It was a few minutes later when I noticed that something was going on. It seemed like I was starting to melt into the floor of the tower. I couldn't do anything anyway, so I just let whatever was happening, happen. A few moments more, and I was gone.

* * *

Unknown: Beach, unknown time 

"Mmmmm……" I groaned as I opened my eyes. "Where am I…?" I looked around and, finding I could move again, I stood and took a good look around.

I was in some kind of freaky fantasy world, where there were trees, a beach, sunshine… I gasped as I realized I was in the Xanadu world that Aelita had told us about one day, and Joe had told me about even before that…

o o o

"_Ooh! What's that, Joe? Is that what Hawaii looks like?"_

"_No, sister… This is a world I created. A world without wars, evil… It's a perfect world."_

"_Wow! Can I go someday?"_

"_Not anytime soon, sis. I have no way to get anyone there… but I can make new people and put them there. It's fun to watch them be with the other people and see what they do."_

"_What is that place called?"_

"_It's a word that means paradise: Xanadu."_

o o o_  
_

As I realized that this was my brother's creation as well, I wondered what else I would find here. I took a walk around, and soon noticed I was also back in my normal clothes, which I was happy about. Being stuck in my Lyoko setup for longer than needed was not something I liked. I kicked off my shoes and walked in the sand, taking a break I _so_ needed. And a thought struck me: This really was paradise. I couldn't think of one thing to change… wait, yes I could. I missed my friends back in the real world. I wished I could see them, bring them here… But I knew it was all for naught. More importantly… would I ever see them again?

"Kelly? Why are you here?"

I turned, recognizing one of the many people I'd wanted to see most. "Aelita! Oh, I'm so glad to see you!" She too was no longer dressed in her Lyoko clothing; she had on a pink T-shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes.

"But how did you get here? If you're in Xanadu…" A look of horror crossed her face. "No… it can't be…"

"What is it, Aelita?"

She averted her eyes. "It means you're stuck in Lyoko…"

* * *

WP: Matt's house, 10:16 AM local, 5/20 

The rest of the gang was back at Matt's place trying to figure out what to do. Absently Matt paged through the manual for LyokoNet version 5.1.4, written by Joe and recently edited by himself, hoping beyond all hope that he'd find something to help him. He found little, but there were a few interesting spots.

_New in version 5.0.9: Connect to someone without knowing their coordinates! Select their identity from the Active menu, then select Connect (Audio) from the sub-menu._

_New in version 5.1.3: Recall a conversation with someone with the Reconnect To… item under the Active menu. Other options after establishing a connection include Materialize and Resupply._

Matt continued going through, soon nearing the end of the book. He stopped when he reached the version history.

_Coming up in version 6.0.0: After a request from my sister some time ago, I am working on a way to enter the virtual world of Xanadu using any standard scanner adhering to the LNS3 standard set forth earlier in this manual._

"Virtual world of Xanadu…" Matt got an idea. "Joe! I just read about Xanadu… what is it?"

"Well, Aelita mentioned before about the basics. It's a paradise I created along with Lyoko."

"Right. But what IS it? Is it just a data stream for viewing, or is it an environment that can accept new data?"

"New data can be added… where's this going?"

Matt was talking faster now. "I'm wondering… maybe there's some way that we can get Kelly into Xanadu, and then use a new version of LyokoNet to get her out!"

"Whoa, whoa, time out," Joe said. Matt's face fell. "Kelly is currently sitting motionless at the top of a tower. How do you propose we get her TO Xanadu in the first place?"

"Dang, you're right…"

Suddenly, two windows opened on LyokoNet. This would not normally be unusual… other than the fact that Aelita never took up more than one window. "Aelita? What news?"

"Plenty," she began, as she came on screen. "First, you'll want to take a look at the other window that came up with me…"

Matt did… and couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Kelly… is that you?"

"In the data!" I said happily.

"When did you… How did you… Why did you…" Matt babbled. "_Explain._"

"Well, soon after you went to look for a solution, I sunk into the floor of the tower. I ended up in Xanadu, and met Aelita there. She opened a communications channel, and… we're here."

"But we saw you lying on the floor! How did you get anywhere?"

"I can answer that," Aelita chimed in. "Going to Xanadu is only an option for native programs on the LyokoNet system you're using, but it restores HP fully and cures non-resident bugs. Since Kelly was unable to move because of a temporary bug, she was cured. And no, that won't get me out of here… that's a resident bug."

"HAH! She DID get to Xanadu!" Matt said triumphantly. "Now, then, how close is LyokoNet 6.0.0 to being done?"

"I'm still early in the dev cycle… I still have to finish coding, then interface, and then documentation, and also testing. Basically Kelly's in the same boat at Aelita for a while… Hear what Aelita said about native programs? That means something that is stored on the system, rather than moved in and out. So, Kelly is now a bit closer to Aelita than I think she wanted to be…"

"What does that mean?" Aelita asked.

"I think Kelly kind of looked to you as a worthy partner, someone she wanted to learn to be like. Unfortunately she's become a bit more like you than I think she wanted…"

"Oh, I understand…" She turned to me. "Don't worry, I have complete faith in Jeremie, Joe, and Matt to get us out of here. XANA can only stand against so many brains…" She went back to the others. "You should get out of here… go see a movie or something."

"Oh, that reminds me!" I said. "I had seen where some movie company bigwig wants to come out there to shoot a film… You all should go check it out. Don't worry about me," she added to Jeremie, seeing the look on his face. "I'll be just fine here… and you can always call me if you get bored."

"Really? OK, then it's settled. Let's go see that set!" He led the march up the steps, soon leaving the room empty but for the two girls on the screen.

Aelita sighed. "He always leaves that on…" She remotely closed the link and turned off the monitor. "So, then… we have nothing but time here. We can talk, play games, get a tan, take a swim… It's really the paradise that Joe designed it as. Of course, I can't leave, so it's not perfect, but…"

The sinking feeling welling in my heart was getting to be too much to bear. I fell to my knees in the sand, my legs fanning out behind me, and began to cry. "This can't be… happening… to me…" I sobbed. "I'm just a… girl… how do I… live in… a computer?"

Aelita came to comfort me. "Don't worry… you don't have to go though this alone. I'm in the same boat… but mine's been a sea a bit longer." She gave a hollow laugh. "It's more a nuisance than anything else nowadays. I have faith that the three brains will get me out soon, but until then I'm data. And data is forever…" Rather than calm me, she too began to tear. "I'm sorry about all this… it's my fault…"

"No, it's you that brought us here… and it was one of the best things that could ever happen to me." I looked into the eyes of my friend, who I was now closer to then ever, and saw something in her eyes I didn't think I'd seen before: despair. "What's wrong?"

"Maybe you're right… Maybe we won't ever get out of here. Maybe we'll be stuck here forever!"

"You were the one that said data is forever… It doesn't have to stay that way. Maybe we can print ourselves out, or fax ourselves to the principal…"

But Aelita was too hysterical to listen to me. "It's all over… I can't get out, I'll never be able to touch Jeremie…"

"Neither can I… and I was the one who liked him!"

Aelita abruptly became quiet. "So did I…"

I realized another common point between us: we were both attached to Jeremie. But as Aelita hadn't been in the real world with him at all, her connection was weaker than my own. And I had a strong resolve to get us both out of here, to my best friend… ah, whatever. No use holding it back any longer. I wanted him as my boyfriend, regardless. But I had to get out of Xanadu – and Lyoko – for that dream to be realized. I knew there was something I could do, I just had to find it… and wait for my brother Joe to finish the latest firmware to get us out of here. Until then, all my efforts would be for naught. So I just had to wait until then.

It was indeed trouble in paradise.

* * *

WP: Street, 10:22 AM local, 5/20 

"So, where are they shooting this, again?" Ulrich questioned.

"At the dinosaur center… they paid big bucks to promise the safety of the bones inside," Matt explained. "It's right… ah, there it is." He pointed at a large yellow building, with palm trees out front. That was off, because they were the last thing you'd expect to find in Colorado, but… "Shall we?" He led the rush across the street, and they went in, Matt noting that the gates were open because of the event. The director was holding a press conference in the lobby.

"…Ah, yes, now, as I was saying, we will have to close this center off to the public to permit filming the movie, and all windows will be covered up, except just enough to let light in. The ONLY exceptions in regards to entry will be those working. Now, I will also require some… how you say… assistants, to help with setup and the like. You will be paid, but there will not be any outside contact while the film is being made…"

"Whoa!" Matt said, in awe at the speaker. "That's Vincent Agoth, that famous director!"

"Right!" Odd said. "What was it…? Oh, yeah! Celery Wars Episode II: Attack of the Ranch! Man, that was classic!" He turned to Matt excitedly. "Remember when Kragoth got attacked by that one cup of ranch and…"

Yumi sighed. "Honestly… Celery Wars? While I admit that it's a popular series, it is a bit… bland on plot, and on character race…"

But Ulrich had been thinking about something else. "Hey, Matt!"

"Yeah?"

"Tell me, is there an E-Port in here?"

"Yeah… oh, no." He realized the gravity of the situation, as Ulrich had several moments before. "Someone needs to be on his team."

"I will," Ulrich said. "Just tell me where the E-Port is."

"There's a button on this side of the huge structure we saw as we came in. Press that, and a hole opens to the E-Port. It's pretty much one way, unless you really wanted to get back up, in which case you could try to slide up... Or there's a ladder."

"Let's see... slide, or ladder? In the event of an emergency, I'll use the ladder."

"Good idea. Anyway... good luck. We're counting on you!" They all walked out, save Ulrich. He instead approached the director.

"Excuse me, sir? How do I get a spot in this?"

"You want to work for me? You're come to the right place, my friend! Happy to have you on board. We start filming tomorrow, but I need you back here by 2 PM. No exceptions. Oh, and you may want to leave personal communications devices at home... they will be taken from you when you come back, and saved to pawn should the film flop."

_Hmm... that might not be good. I should see if I can get him to stop taping entirely..._ "You know, there are rumors that there's a ghost on this property... I heard that it's done a lot of damage over time. Are you sure you want all your expensive filming equipment here if and when that happens?"

"Oh, yeah, I'm sure! That would be even better, in fact! Thanks for the tip!" And he scurried off to see what other work needed to be done to set up.

Ulrich walked out to spread the bad news, with one thought: _That went well.

* * *

_

Xanadu: Beach, 10:31 AM RWT, 5/20

I went around the beach, looking for something to do. Though normally I'd have been perfectly content just sunbathing, I wanted to know that there was another option. A quick search of the beach revealed nothing. _Man… I wish I had a cold soda right now… It's hot out here!_ As if on cue, a wireframe appeared like a monster's destruction in reverse, followed by a 20-ounce bottle of Pepsi in its place. "Wha… how did that get here?"

Hearing the noise, Aelita ran over. "Something wrong?" Then she followed my gaze to the bottle of soda sitting on a rock, looking for all the world as if it had just come out of the fridge with condensation on the sides. "How did… a drink… get here?"

"I don't know! I just thought about having a soda… and it showed up!"

o o o

Somewhere back in the real world, in a gas station, a man was about to grab a Pepsi for his road trip… when it disappeared from in front of him. The ones behind it slid forward as if someone – or something – had taken it. But the man just stood there with the cooler door open. "OK, I'm never drinking Pepsi again!" And he moved two coolers over and grabbed a Coca-Cola.

o o o

"I wonder if… maybe we could populate the area by thinking of what we want?" Aelita wondered.

"It's worth a try…" I closed my eyes, and a few moments later, my dresser fell with a light thud near the back of the beach, in exactly the same state as I'd left it, down to the pair of jeans on top. I then walked over and moved a branch to serve as a device to hang things on, and my tops fell onto it… and the ones that weren't sitting properly on their hangers fell into the sand. Last, my desk from my room, and the computer on top. "Awesome!" A power outlet and attached battery backup appeared behind it, and I happily plugged it in. I also noticed a certain drive in one of the front ports, and vaguely wondered how it got there from the supercomputer, then decided I didn't care.. I started the computer to provide power, then said out loud, "Anna?"

"Loud and clear, hon," Anna's voice called through the speakers. It comforted me to know that she still had _someone_ around to talk to. "Considering what you've been through, I'm analyzing vitals…" A few moments later, she also started LyokoNet. "I just want to check something…" She came back a few moments later. "OK, done. Here's the deal: As far as XANA is concerned, you're dead. Deleted. Not ever coming back. But we know something different: There will be a way. Not only can you still enter Lyoko, but version 6.0.0 should get you out of here. In any case, your vitals are good regardless, so… yeah," she finished. "Go enjoy yourself… and change clothes, too. How long have you been wearing those?" We both laughed. "Relax. You're literally in paradise… enjoy it."

But a nasty voice in the back of my head nagged, _You seem to be missing some things… and some people. So is it?

* * *

_

WP: Dinosaur center, 1:54 PM local, 5/20

Several hours later, Ulrich returned to the dinosaur center with a new device from Matt installed: a sort of mini-cell phone. It was hidden in his ear, and had a wireless remote control, so it wasn't easy to spot, if at all.

o o o

"_OK, when someone calls you, you'll feel a slight vibration in your ear, and a more pronounced one from the remote," Matt said. "There's an answer button on the remote. You can keep your voice low and we can still hear you. Just don't give it away, or else he either digs for it and finds it, or thinks you're crazy and kicks you out. So be careful. Do you understand?"_

"_Yeah. And I need to leave this with you…" He forked over his cell phone._

"_It's safe with me. Have a good afternoon… evening… whatever. Just have fun."_

"_Will do. Later!"_

o o o_  
_

He was able to head in without argument, as he clearly had nothing to hide, and the slim remote had no noticeable profile in his pocket. He headed over to a group of girls and guys and took a seat. "Hey, what's up?"

"Not much," said one of the guys. "Just hanging out…"

"Agoth may make good movies, but he's not all that efficient," one of the girls supplied.

"Oh, really? That's odd for someone of his position, isn't it?" Ulrich questioned.

"What planet are you from? France or something?" the other girl retorted. (Ulrich shifted nervously.) "Over here, if you don't have to have something done, it can wait. You know the American way."

"Ain't that the truth. Do you know…" And the other guy led them into a discussion about how painfully slow the school was. During the conversation, Ulrich was able to find out the names of the group. The guys were Chris and Mike, and the girls were Purple (she only answered to her nickname, apparently) and Mandy.

"So, do you all go to school here?" All four said yes. "I just moved out here about six months ago…" _Has it really been that long already? It seems like it was just a few days ago…_ "Remember that train wreck in France some time ago?" And he began to tell the edited version of his story. Every once in a while he'd be interrupted for a question, but it was largely a straight run, which still took a while. As he finished, Agoth came over and began to give instructions to the group. Ulrich, along with Purple, was assigned the task of covering the windows, as promised during the speech that morning. He pointed them to a ladder, then continued to the others. "So, then, Purple, shall we?"

"Sure, why not?" She grabbed the paper, and Ulrich got the ladder. They both went over to one of the windows and began to cover it.

While they worked, Purple stopped for some reason. She looked thoughtful, then something dawned on her. "Hold on… Matt told us one time that something was wrong with Lyoko, then he ran off… were you that something?" she asked suspiciously.

_I'd forgotten that Matt's told everyone about Lyoko…_ "Yeah, that was us. We came here through the scanners before we all choked to death. And we've been attending school here ever since…"

"Wow, sounds exciting."

"Not really… it kinda gets boring after a while. But it's not too bad." She didn't say anything else, and they finished quietly, after working for the next several hours.

"Now, everyone, tomorrow is the day! I should tell you why you are here, exactly: we are making Celery Wars: Revenge of the Broccoli. I'm counting on you all to do your best! But for tonight… sleep well." He walked off, presumably to the trailer or whatever he was sleeping in.

_Now THAT sounds like a plan…_ Ulrich fell asleep pretty soon after that on a sleeping bag set out on the floor.

* * *

WP: Library lower entrance, 9:54 AM local, 5/21 

"Well, this is it…" The gang had to form into groups to do this. Considering that Matt's group was already 18 or older each, they would fit for the "adults" needed for the game. Matt and Josh joined the party containing Jeremie and Yumi, and Kate and Sam took the lead for Odd and Sissi. They went into the building when the doors opened, and signed up on the clipboard handed to them. There were a few other teams, including a team of girls led by one of the teachers, and a father-son team, who would (theoretically) be at a disadvantage. Soon after everyone had filed in, a lady who worked for the county told everyone to take a seat. The two groups sat as one. Another woman, this one the event coordinator, came to the front. She first said a bit about why they were holding these events, and then moved on to the rules.

"OK, here's how this will work. When we start, I will give you your first clue. You'll go to wherever that clue is supposed to get you, and you get your next clue. Then figure that one out, and so on. The last clue will tell you to come back here, so when you get it, run back to this room and give us your clues. You need all ten to actually finish. If you get stuck, call the number you were given earlier. It calls the cell phone I have over there, which allows you to get help, but costs you additional time.

"Now, for the bonus competitions. First, someone needs to put on the pedometer when we start. You can keep it on one person or switch it, but no spamming it by running around Memorial Park with it while your team is getting the clues. Highest step counter wins. Also, you got a trash bag to start off. Fill this trash bag with any garbage you see along the way. The heaviest bag wins, but rocks and such will disqualify you. So, we're ready to begin… we'll get started any minute here." After a few last-minute preparations, she noted the "official" time from her laptop. "It's now 10:21. When I give you your clue, you may begin." She pulled out four envelopes, giving the first to Matt and the second to Sam. As the two teams ran out together, she called, "Good luck!"

It was now a race against both time, and each other. The two groups had to split up because their clues were different. But it wasn't long before Matt got a call on his phone. While still running to a clue that pointed to McDonalds, he said into it, "Matt here." His face turned serious, and he slowed to a jog, then a walk, and then stopped altogether. "OK. We're on our way." He turned to the others. "That was Aelita… a tower's been activated. Jeremie, call Odd's team. We need them at the scanners to go and help out."

"What about us?"

"We've got a little appointment with Ulrich…"

* * *

WP: Dinosaur center, 10:38 AM local, 5/21 

Agoth had already put them to work: They would all have parts in the movie, most of them as the victims of the broccoli. But none of them, not even Agoth, noticed the black cloud that possessed an animatronic broccoli warrior, and they still didn't notice when it began to move. Ulrich and Purple were scheduled to be the first victims of the broccoli, but it came too soon. "Wait, that's not right! Cut!" Agoth shouted. But it didn't stop. Ulrich looked at its head… and found a symbol in its eyes he didn't want to see.

"Crap! It's a XANA attack! Everyone, run!" But Agoth refused to leave now, and as his reward, he was stuck to the wall with a substance that appeared to be…

"Ranch dressing?" Purple questioned, but Ulrich tackled her out of the way. This caused the beast to miss its shot on Purple and shatter a window instead. A few moments later, Ulrich's phone began to vibrate.

"Ulrich here… and it better be good!"

"I gather something is going on in there?"

"Agoth's broccoli creature is attacking us! Do something!"

"Would the Digizone work?"

"Perfect! But hurry!" He hung up, pressed the button to the hatch for the E-Port, and pushed Purple in. "Don't touch anything! I'll be back!" She nodded, and Ulrich pulled off a piece of paper from one of the windows to reveal the Digizone forming. "And this is the part where it gets interesting! Lyoko Blast, activate!"

Through the hatch, Purple saw Ulrich change forms, and decided to leave this to the professionals… wait, what was she thinking? She climbed back out, but this time with a PVC pipe in hand. "Ulrich, I don't know what's going on, but I'm going to help you!" To the monster, she added, "Hey, you! Come and get it!" And she ran around, trying to create a distraction.

"You need to hide…" But she didn't listen, so Ulrich decided to just work with her. "If you're sure." He got closer and slashed the thing, hoping to stop it, but all it did was put a slash in its fabric and make it mad. It turned and swiped at Ulrich, sending him into a set of dinosaur bones, which then fell, covering all three of them. Ulrich was the first to recover, and he grabbed Purple's hand and dragged her out of the room and to the doors. "Agoth or not, get out of here!" he said, opening the door and pushing her outside. He then locked her out and took on the vegetable gone wrong alone. "Come get some! Triplicate!" He split into three, and then attacked the thing with everything he had. But he was really stalling until the gang could deactivate the tower…

* * *

Lyoko: Desert, 10:42 AM RWT, 5/21 

Aelita and Kelly were already in Lyoko and on their way to the tower by the time the others arrived, and doing quite well. Aelita and Kelly had both taken up weapons, and Aelita had a REALLY long sword that she didn't look able to handle at first glance. But she handled it well, and was taking out everything in sight, if Kelly didn't shoot it first. By the time Odd and Sissi virtualized, they were pretty much just the escort party. It didn't take the two long to get to the tower, and Aelita was the one who went in and entered the code.

Back in the city, Matt was watching this whole affair on his laptop. Sam's voice called through LyokoNet, "Time for you to do your thing!"

"Certainly. Return to the past, now!" he said, and pressed the Enter key with flourish. A white dome spread from under the factory…

* * *

WP: Dinosaur center, 10:25 AM local, 5/20 

"You know, this is the most _boring_ place in the entire United States… the only people who come here are nerds, and then they buy season passes. And the whole thing's new, so nothing creaky, nothing in danger of falling or anything… It's completely safe."

"What? _Safe?_ Blasphemy! Come on, team, let's look for somewhere else!" And within five minutes, his whole crew was out of there and moving on to some other unsuspecting town.

"Ulrich, didn't you want to be in the movie?" Purple asked him all of a sudden. She'd been watching like everyone else.

"Not really, I –" It clicked. "How do you know my name?"

"Hello? I met you tomorrow, then time turned back? You should know that, of all people!"

"But you're not supposed to…" Ulrich turned, and Matt suddenly looked fearful. "MATT! Get back here NOW!" Ulrich called, running after Matt's receding figure.

* * *

WP: Library lower entrance, 5/21 

The competition had ended some minutes ago, and the final scores were being tallied. "OK, we have the final results! The winners of the garbage collection were… Matt's team, with 20.5 pounds!" They had found a large piece of discarded rubber… and it wasn't a rock, either, so it wasn't against the rules. "The most steps… Sam's team, with… 12,000 steps?" She turned to one of the helpers. "Is this really right?"

"It's actually 12,376, but I thought a simpler number would do," the girl said with a shrug.

"…OK, then…" She went on. "And, the winners of the race were…" She said a name that nobody picked up on at first… then the father-son team stood. "With an astounding time of 36 minutes! Congratulations!" They all picked up their prizes, and left the library. The eight of them then went to the coffee shop next door, which each team had won $25 to. They ended up getting some drinks, some souvenirs, and one of those fancy plastic water bottles that they knew Kelly would have wanted. They then started the trek back to Matt's house.

* * *

WP: Matt's house, 11:27 AM local, 5/21 

Back at Matt's house, the gang called up Xanadu to see if Aelita and I were there. We were, of course. "Hey, girls! How's everything going?" Matt greeted.

"Wonderful… take a look!" I stepped aside to give him a look at our small touches – my computer and such, and some other things we'd generated.

"Where did all that… come from?"

"We brought it here. A secret routine… involves thinking. You may not be able to use it," I said jokingly. The others laughed.

"Funny, funny… By the way, we brought you something…" He held up the bottle they'd bought earlier.

"Oh, a Nalgene bottle! I've wanted one of those for months! As soon as I get out of here… that bottle is MINE!" I said happily, with an evil laugh tacked on at the end for fun.

"Right… So, take care… and feel free to shoot us an e-mail or something, now that the computer's there. Bye!" He closed the connection… but I thought of a way to have the last word. I grabbed a piece of paper from the printer, wrote a message, and…

"What…" On Matt's computer desk, all of a sudden there was a wireframe, and then an empty bottle of Pepsi. There was a message inside. "How…"

_Enjoy, sucker. –K_

Matt sighed. "I will _never_ understand her. Never." He threw away the bottle, message and all.

* * *

Neo's Notes 

Hey, all! Been a while, eh? First, shout-outs to the real people, places, and events in this chapter: Chris, Mike, Purple (she knows who she is), and Mandy, Java… the Hut, and Teller County for putting on that race – it actually happened, though it didn't turn out exactly like that. (The father-son team did win, though, and my team had the most garbage. And of course the Code Lyoko gang wasn't there.)

Review response:

Trillinka (x5) – Good to see you! Hope you enjoy! And yes, Joe's purpose will be revealed (kinda) in one or more later chapters.  
Janika – Fell off? Likely deletion. But that's not what happens, as you'll see…  
Siberian-Tigress – Right here. Enjoy.

Hope you all like it! This is Neo, reminding you to enjoy your summer, wear sunscreen, and keep listening to WNEO for more updates. Laters.


	15. Explanation

15: Explanation (Satellite)

* * *

WP: Matt's house, 1:37 PM local, 5/21

"Matt," Joe said simply, with a look on his face that added, _I have something to say to you. Tell me to talk and then shut up._

"Yes, Joe?"

"I'm working on LyokoNet version 6… but I need a beta-tester to help me get things working, give me an idea of what needs to be done. I'm going to install LyokoNet 6 alongside the existing working installation, but I want you to use it as much as possible to help me find bugs. I… also need a test subject for some of the other new features, particularly the power to send someone to Xanadu. Can I count on you to help me out with this?"

"Yes, certainly. Just tell me what to do."

"In that case…" Joe handed him a pair of disks. "This is LyokoNet 6.0.0 beta 1. Use the installer to load it up in a new folder so it doesn't affect version 5. Then load it up."

"I'm on it." He put the first DVD in the tray and the installer opened. He was strongly reminded of the well-made installers of many Microsoft programs, as this one had all manner of graphics, help, and everything else. He was careful to choose a different folder for a new install rather than upgrading the existing install. And now… he waited, changing the disk a little bit later. Considering the work that this software was responsible for, its size made sense. In a few minutes, though, it was done. The program now asked him to set up new data. "Can't I use my old data?"

"…Kinda. In Version 6, many of the features have been changed, and Version 5 won't recognize the new data, so it will mark all the characters corrupt, and you can't virtualize. So, you can import old data, and new character cards will be made for you. But any changes that you make won't go back to 5.0… understand?"

"Yeah, sounds good. Let's get this show on the road!" He clicked through a few screens and set the data locations, and new character cards were created. A screen came up to make updates to the cards. A few tweaks later, he was done, and he opened the software, which looked familiar. However, there were a few more buttons… and a new menu. "What's this new menu?"

"This is the menu to send someone to Xanadu. But be careful, because if the program's code is off, either they're only going to go one way, or the transfer may fail and something bad could happen. Thankfully, if something DOES happen, we'll be able to stay in contact. Now then, the best option is to go ahead and pick a test subject…" And the two pondered who to send.

* * *

Xanadu: Beach, 1:42 PM RWT, 5/21

While the boys were planning my rescue – and possibly Aelita's – I was on my computer, going about my normal routine… more or less. I'd just opened my IM program, and was proceeding to message everyone I could think of. My latest victim: Erika. I started a voice chat conversation. "Hey, Erika. Can you hear me?"

"Yeah, I can! Hi, there!" came back the overly peppy voice, clearer than normal. I suspected that the fact that I was inside a computer could be to blame.

"Hi, yourself! How are you doing?"

"Good… hold on, I'll call you."

"No, wait, don't…" It was too little, too late, as the other had already left. About a minute or so later, she came back. "What's going on? You're not at home, and your parents haven't seen you in days!"

I was running out of options, and Erika knew me too well. "I'm staying at someone's house…"

"Without telling your parents? Talk, Kelly."

I sighed, defeated. "…Can you keep a secret?"

"Maybe. What is it?"

"…I have a secret life that started when I went to school in France. You have to promise you won't tell anyone if I tell you, though," I warned.

"…Promise. Now, what's going on?"

"It all started when I went over to France to attend Kadic. There's this really nasty computer virus that my brother developed that attacks people by taking control of objects and using them for various purposes. These kids at Kadic are a defense force against this virus. Anyway, the virus attacked my plane when I was going over there, and then when I showed up, I ended up meeting them and joining up with them." I let it sink in, and waited for a response.

"…I can't believe that. It doesn't fit in with everything else. Besides, there's been odd stuff going on lately… how do you defend that?"

"Well, a few weeks after I got there, XANA – that's the virus – attacked by making one train switch onto a crash course with another, which would release a massive cloud of toxic gas and kill a lot of people for a long way out, including us. So, at the last second, we fled over to Woodland Park. But now the virus is attacking us here, so it can kill people without us interfering."

"Wow… so it's true. But that still doesn't answer the question: Where are you now?"

"Well… on a routine mission, I got attacked and somehow got trapped in a virtual world. Everyone on the outside is working to get me back, but I don't know how long that will take… I'm sorry, Erika." As soon as I said it, I knew I shouldn't have.

"Are you… not coming back, or something?"

"I think I am, but it may take a little while." Again, the wrong thing to say.

"No… it can't be… you can't…" She dissolved into tears. "You have to come back!" she sobbed. "I don't know what I'll do if I lose you!"

"It's OK, it's OK! I'll come back, don't worry!" I said cheerily, hoping to get her to stop. She was silent for a bit.

"…How… how can I help…?" she whispered.

"I… don't think you can," I admitted.

"Don't give me that! I know there's something I can do, so spill!" she said hotly, changing tone immediately.

"OK, OK… let me check." I opened a window to Matt, who was logged on. "Matt, I inadvertently just told my best friend everything. Is there any way she can help us?"

Matt sighed. "Nice job… I think we could use her somehow. Get her over here."

"OK, I will." I closed my window with him and returned to Erika. "Matt says you can help us. His house is across the street from you and two doors to the left. Failing that, I'll give you Matt's cell to contact him. Now… I'll see you soon. Bye, Erika."

"See you soon, Kelly…" I closed the voice chat, and began to cry softly. _I'm sorry, I really am…

* * *

_

WP: Matt's house, 2:06 PM local, 5/21

Some time after Kelly had checked in with him, Matt heard a knock at the door. He headed upstairs to answer it, and then put on his headset. "Come in, Kelly…"

"I'm here…" She sounded sad.

"What does Erika look like?"

"Well…" Matt looked out the peephole and saw each and every feature as Kelly described it. "Why?"

"She's here," he replied, opening the door. Without missing a beat, she charged past him down the stairs. Matt got up a few seconds later. "Ow... what was that?" He headed downstairs. "And may I ask your name, miss?"

"I'm Erika. Kelly's friend?" she said sincerely.

"OK, then. I'm Matt. I lead the team that Kelly works with. Speaking of which..." He walked over to the computer and brought up LyokoNet, spawning a communications window to Kelly, who was still in Xanadu. "Come in, Kelly..." She appeared on the screen, cheery as always.

"How may I be of service?" She gasped. "Erika? You came, you came!"

"Calm down! What's up?"

"Oh, I don't know where to begin..." She started to explain again, from the start, leaving nothing out. Where her memory wasn't sufficient, Matt helped her out with more info. They talked for several minutes. "And now I'm here, in Xanadu, until the gang can get here and find a way to get me back out. Any questions?"

Erika stared at the computer screen, dumbfounded. "You aren't serious..." She seemed in disbelief. "Your brother's virus, a virtual being in your image, the incident in France... it doesn't add up. The thing I want to know is, why you? Why did it have to be you as the heir to all of this?"

"…I'd like to know that myself. I can't get over the feeling that, regardless of Joe's involvement, there is a higher power at work here. Do you know what I mean?"

"I think I understand. And yet… how would that work? The virus is all Joe's work. So your higher power would have to help Joe make it…"

"Which isn't out of the question. But that still brings up the matter of, why you?"

"…I really don't know, I'm sorry," I admitted. "The only thing I can do is offer for you to join our cause." I stopped and thought about it. While I had developed the cautiousness that both Jeremie's and Matt's teams held, I also knew that we wouldn't win without help. XANA was a strong foe, and we needed stronger allies to bring the pain. "Let's go over your hobbies again."

"Well… soccer… and also I like to practice with swords and such."

"Perfect! Tell you what. I'm going to set up an obstacle course for you to see what your best weapon combination is. Make sure Matt is down there before we start… I need to talk to him first, actually." Erika moved aside, and Matt came on the screen. "Matt, I want to send her through the obstacle course on Lyoko. And while she's there, I want Ulrich and Odd here to watch. I want them to evaluate where she'd be best: gunner or swordswoman."

"I understand," Matt replied. "I'll send her to Lyoko. The training area is in the Forest region, so head over there now and be ready to meet her. Ulrich and Odd will watch with me from this end. Don't forget to take Aelita as well…"

"Will do, sire," I joked. Then I focused. "Area change!" I glowed for a moment, before I disappeared. Aelita sighed and began to float into the air before breaking to a wireframe and transporting away.

Meanwhile, Matt escorted Erika to an open scanner. "Don't worry, this doesn't hurt. Get ready!" He grabbed Ulrich and Odd and ran over to the computer. "Create character card, Erika!" The scanner door opened, and she went inside. It closed and it scanned her for a few moments, creating a basic card. Then it opened and she got out, closing again behind her. "Now we begin!" The door opened once more and she walked inside, as a familiar theme played over the speakers behind Matt's voice. "Transfer, Erika!" On his screen LyokoNet scrolled through the character cards, stopping on Erika's with a beep. "Scanner, Erika!" The scanners began to take in data from the girl as the wireframe on Matt's screen took form. "Virtualization!" There was a flash, and then...

* * *

Lyoko: Forest, 2:13 PM RWT, 5/21

Aelita walked out of a tower to find a certain someone waiting for her. "What kept you?" I teased.

"Traffic on the network," Aelita joked back. We stopped as a wireframe appeared in the sky, took the form of a girl about my age, and then fell to the ground with a thud and a faceplant. "Hey, isn't that...?"

"Erika!" I screamed, running over to her. "Oh, it's been so long..."

"Five months..." And indeed it had been. I'd left for Kadic on the 21st of December – and the five-month anniversary was today. It would have been a day of celebration if not for the pressing matter of myself being stuck in Lyoko. "But enough about that. Where is this?"

"This," I began with flourish, "is the wonderful virtual world of Lyoko. Whenever XANA attacks, we come here to own his monsters and disable the towers. Today, you are here to test your skills in order to determine how you should be created as a character. I'll ask you to go through a few tests of skill and adeptness, and we'll determine what kind of weapon best suits you. Ready to begin?" Erika nodded. "OK, we're ready to play! Start the test!" As I said the words, a path appeared in front of Erika, who took it to mean she was to go across. Of course, not only were there obstacles, but lasers fired from nowhere at her. She dodged these nimbly. _This part of the test is easy – with only 30 Life, she has to get across the area. The more Life she has at the end, the better her score is, and the more she has for the other parts. If she runs out of Life, she gets kicked out. Simple._ She reached the center area with ease, taking no damage.

"Right, now for the weapons test. We'll start with the sword. Pick it up and attack the targets, which will be shooting at you. Good luck!" Erika picked up the sword… and something inside her seemed to click. The two became one as she seemed to fly at sonic speed to each target, gracefully taking out each one. The one time it seemed she would be hit, she was on the ground; in one swift motion she drove the sword into the virtual dirt and balanced with one hand on the end of the blade's handle, feet to the sky. She then dropped just as gracefully down and terminated the last target, which brought her back to the middle area.

"…Sword," Ulrich determined, stunned.

"Good job. Now, to the gun arena! Take the handgun and shoot the targets. Same rules as before – avoid the lasers and take out the enemy. Begin!" She grabbed the sidearm and ran into the arena, with a rolling move. As she rose she shot two in front of her, and then cartwheeled away from a hail of lasers coming at her from behind. Coming out of the move, she shoved off the ground and took out a number of additional targets from high in the air. Then she took firm hold of a tree branch and stood on top of it, shooting and dodging from there, until she jumped off, started to do a backflip, shot two more targets, and stuck the landing magnificently. The last target appeared behind her while bowing, and without a glance to see it, Erika shot it, allowing the laser to pass over her head, and blew imaginary smoke from her weapon.

"…Gun," Odd breathed, in awe.

"Right! Now, to the thrown object test! Your weapon is that boomerang. Throw it to destroy the targets while evading attack, as always. Let's roll!" This final test began much like the first two, with Erika grabbing the weapon and giving it a tricky toss that caused it to fly out, then over her head, between her legs, back out in front, then back to her waiting hand. She played defense here, reflecting the lasers back at the targets to destroy them. The last few were dismissed with perfectly aimed tosses, recovered from the air gracefully.

"…Boomerang," Yumi said quietly, having just arrived a few moments ago.

"And now, one last test…" I took my rifle in hand. "Beat me. Choose a weapon, and bring it on." Erika stuffed the gun and boomerang in cargo pockets and took the sword. "Here we go!" I fired the rifle at her to find it reflected back at me before I could react.

"130 Life left, Kelly…" Matt warned. I growled and kept firing, rolling and moving as I went. Most of these she dodged; a few were reflected, some of which hit me. Then she put the sword through a belt loop and drew out the boomerang. "Careful, 90 Life…" Matt noted. But I paid him no heed as she threw the weapon, which I ducked under. I fired back, but it hit the weapon as it returned, and hit me. "70 Life…" I shot around it this time, but Erika moved out of the way, leaping to her weapon and attacking me again. She hit me this time. "It's an even 50 Life each. Come on, Kelly!" She now recalled the boomerang, opting for the handgun. I fired, which she allowed to hit the reflective surface of her handgun. "30 Life…" She fired at me, but this handgun did less damage than my rifle… not that it mattered. I tried to block or move, but was too slow. "20 Life…" Another shot. "10 Life… You'll drop to one if this connects." The last round came at me, which I sent back for a change. I smiled in annoyed triumph – until I realized that she'd re-reflected it back at me. _Oops._ I was hit, flying back and hitting the ground, face-up.

Erika stood before me, handgun pointed at my head. "That's game, friend," she said, with a playful smile, as she helped me up.

"That was awesome," I said, breathless. "Hey Matt, how did she do?"

Matt sighed, which wasn't a good sign. "All three of my judges – Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd – think she did the best with their weapon type. From my not-so-impartial viewpoint, she's adept with all three weapon classes. I think I might be able to give her all three, with a tradeoff somewhere down the line. Anyway, you all can return to your proper places…" I jumped in the air into a graceful backflip, area changing back to the beach as I left the peak of the jump. Aelita returned into the tower, and Matt devirtualized Erika. "But before I work on the character card, I'm going to take the team to get lunch… Don't do anything stupid or evil." He disconnected, leaving us girls alone in Xanadu.

I returned to work on my LyokoNet plug-in that would alert me to an activated tower right away. It wasn't a hard one to write, either – all it really had to do was keep a scan running, and report in as soon as a tower came up. A few minutes later, she finished with it, saved it, and implemented it… only to have it trigger immediately. "No, what's wrong…" But it wasn't broken – no, it was reporting already! I had already stolen the program from Jeremie's computer to check for what the tower might be doing, and soon got my answer from several places at once. A cell phone call was intercepted by LyokoNet, and at the same time I got a news report that a secret military laser satellite had been hijacked and was targeting… uh-oh. "Talk to me," I said, trying to stay calm.

"We're under attack! There's something shooting at us!" Jeremie panicked.

I sighed. "XANA has activated a tower and taken control of a military laser defense satellite and is using it to attack you. It has an accuracy of within three feet from its current orbit. Be very careful… there is little you can do to stop it, short of running or hiding underground. I'm activating the Digizone now. The best way to do this is to Blast to get here safely, then I'll send you to Lyoko. Kelly out… be safe," I added.

"OK, we're on our way," he assured, before closing the call.

An idea struck me for no apparent reason at all, but it made a lot of sense… and there was someone I wanted to share with. "Hey, Aelita… Since your code is based on me, that makes us…"

"Sisters… interesting," she noted. "Well, sis, shall we head for Lyoko?"

"Sounds good." For the second time in the past hour, we headed back to Lyoko and got ready for combat…

* * *

WP: City center, 2:48 PM local, 5/21, Digizone active

"Activate!" the team called in unison, changing forms. "We've got to get back to the scanners! Everyone, move!" Matt, the only one not to transform, led the charge back to his house and the Remo-Scanners there. They narrowly dodged fire from all sides as they went, but aside from that the dash was uneventful. Matt barged into his house. "Move it, everyone! Into Lyoko, now!" He brought the scanners into Mass Transit, and everyone jumped in, ready to go.

* * *

Lyoko: Desert, 2:54 PM RWT, 5/21

The entire team entered the Desert region in a few seconds. "OK, guys, we need to find that tower, pronto! If that thing keeps shooting at the town, we're toast!" Matt panicked.

"Don't worry about it, we're going to take care of things," Odd responded. Aelita ran from a tower next to him, and my wireframe appeared above him, formed into me, then fell on top of him. "Kelly… is that really necessary?"

"Oops, sorry," I said cheerfully, moving off him and preparing for battle. "Look out, there's something here…" Indeed there was, as a monster appeared… uh-oh. "Megatank! Out of the way!" We all moved away from the shot, and Odd moved in to fire. But first I drew my rifle. Two shots later, the Megatank was dispatched.

"Guys, the tower should be straight ahead, but it's a long run, and XANA wants to make things difficult," Matt warned. And indeed he did: there were many Blocks and such lining the path to salvation. I took up a sniping position, Ulrich Triplicated and broke into the crowd, Odd started bouncing around and shooting, Sissi took off behind Ulrich, Yumi threw her fans out, the others supported with whatever they had… it was a mess. I couldn't do much because trying to snipe here would hit someone. I instead waited for my friends to clean up the mess in front of me. As they took out everything in front them, they moved up, essentially a rolling guard. While this did a fantastic job of protecting Aelita and I, it was horrible for those running the guard, as they were dropping like flies. Before long, both sides were nearly depleted. Of the many who'd entered Lyoko, only a few remained: myself, Aelita, and Sissi. Of us, Sissi was drained, but Aelita and I hadn't taken damage. Across the battlefield were five Blocks, the last of XANA's advance force – hopefully all he had left. I shot them with a practiced skill. Sissi gave me a tired smile, then began to run to the tower with Aelita and I. With no more interference, Aelita dashed into the tower and I leaped into the sky to prepare the return in time. Halfway through my backflip I disappeared.

Aelita rose to the top of the tower. Placing her hand on the panel showed her name, followed by the code prompt. She entered the code, and the tower's walls cleared. "Tower deactivated."

* * *

Xanadu: Beach

She'd done it. Now I just needed to activate the return in time. According to the system, so much processor power was in use that a few additional seconds would be required. She waited… there, done. "Return to the past now!" The white dome spread from the tower to repair the city…

* * *

WP: Scanner room

"Well, Erika, I'm happy to report that your character is complete. You've got a sword, a gun, and a ranged weapon, but as a tradeoff your Life is limited to 50 rather than 150. Does that work?" Matt reported.

"Yeah! I'm just happy I could help," Erika said cheerily.

"Well, we're happy to do it. Welcome to the team," Matt said proudly. The two shook hands, and all in attendance cheered.

* * *

- Neo's Notes -

Wow… It's been a while, hasn't it? Anyway, I'm happy to report that I've gotten a lot more readers in the past few months than ever (and some reviewed!), and I'm… well, really happy. I hope everyone enjoys this! I can't respond to reviews directly anymore, but rest assured that I'm getting them, and I'm taking them to heart where possible. (So no, Robyn, I'm not going to use that idea. It's been done.)

As another note… I'm going to work on revising the chapters, making them longer and such. The story will not be deleted or anything. Instead, I'm going to make a new Word file and start from there, then as I finish each revised chapter, I'll overwrite the saved one.

Well, thanks for reading, all. This is Neo here, and you're listening to WNEO.

* * *

Next Time on Code Lyoko: Cyber Upgrade --- Next chapter: Intermission – The Princess's Domain

Why exactly is Aelita the Princess? It's high time the sisters found out the truth about what happened between Joe creating Aelita and Matt finding her – and beyond. Tune in to Code Lyoko: Cyber Upgrade next time to see for yourself!


	16. Intermission: The Princess's Domain

16: Intermission – The Princess's Domain

* * *

Xanadu: Beach, 2:16 PM RWT, 5/21

Now, don't get me wrong, paradise is great. But… Aelita and I decided it was time for a break. We chatted about a few things to get an idea of what we wanted to do. But there was one idea we settled on. Aelita was the Princess of Lyoko (theoretically, so was I), but we didn't have any idea WHY. So we determined it was high time we found out. A little exploring through LyokoNet gave me a place to start: there were four waytowers that were not linked to the rest of Lyoko, but to…

"Another sector? How does that work?" I wondered out loud.

"I don't know…"

"Well… what say we find out?"

"Sounds like a plan."

"OK! Let's go, then!" I led the way to the nearest tower, in the Forest region. We walked inside and dove into the inky blackness at the bottom. When we came out of the other tower… let's just say that Lyoko is a smaller world than it seems.

"What is that…" Aelita began, not knowing what it was, as she'd seen nothing like it here in Lyoko.

"It's a… a palace! But… what is it doing in Lyoko?" I wondered.

My questions were stopped by an approaching figure. "Hello there, ladies… can I be of service?" the person said. Upon closer inspection, the person was a woman, though it was hard to tell aside from the obvious body model.

"Yes… where are we?" Aelita said.

"Ah, new here? Well, allow me to welcome you to the capital of the kingdom of Lyoko: the city of Rome!"

I gasped. "But… Rome is in the real world! The human world! …My world," I babbled.

The woman chuckled. "That it is. But here, Rome isn't a country. It's the core of Lyoko, where decisions are made, power is held… If you've not been here before, you're missing out. Tell me, children, what are your names?"

"Aelita."

"Kelly…"

The lady gasped. "You mean to tell me that the Two Sisters have never been to Rome at all? What kind of madness is this! You must have an audience with the council at once!"

I rolled my eyes at Aelita as we were practically dragged across the city. And what a city it was! People were talking, laughing… things people just didn't do outside of here. And there were shops that sold all manner of stuff… well, taking _sold_ with a grain of salt, as Lyoko didn't appear to have any currency. In no time flat we were at the palace of Rome. "Wow…" I breathed. The palace was beautiful in every way – it was a marvel to behold.

"Well, girls, my time with you has ended. Go, have your audience, and everything you need to know will be revealed…" The woman left us with that cryptic statement.

"Well, sis… let's go," Aelita said to me. We walked in together. At the reception desk, Aelita said, "Hi, we'd like an audience with the council?"

"And you are?" We introduced ourselves and were met with a more or less similar reaction. The receptionist called in, told them that all their meetings and business for the day were cancelled, and that they were going to have very special diplomats coming in. With that the door swung open. "Good luck, girls!"

* * *

WP: Matt's house, 2:23 PM local, 5/21

Unbeknownst to the girls and to the rest of Rome, there was someone else viewing this capital city with awe. Several someones, in fact: Jeremie, Matt, Ulrich, and Yumi were all watching the glimmering city of gold. And they were eagerly listening to what the council had to say to the Two Sisters.

* * *

Lyoko: Palace, 2:25 PM RWT, 5/21

"Enter, young ones…" said the man closest to us. As before, we came with a history. "We are the Grand Council of Lyoko. We oversee it, govern it, and are its caretakers. I am its leader, Sandan. We welcome you to our humble city of Rome."

"Hello, Sandan… Council. I am Aelita. I am a program that has lived in this computer for several years."

"I am Kelly. I am Aelita's source code, if you will. I live on Earth, but was trapped here by a bug in my programming."

"Yes, we know you… you are the Two Sisters of Lyoko. Our prophecies state that, one day, two twin female humans will aid in the fight against the Bringer of Shadow and triumph. Those two will then return here to Rome and become the leaders of the Council, able to make governing decisions and having supreme power."

"Bringer of Shadow?" I asked. "Is that…"

"Yes, you likely know him as the virus XANA," Sandan answered. "He has plagued us for many a year, ever since this world's creation. Our people, however, do not live in constant fear of this plague, as our guard is the best in the worlds, and we are well protected. And if the need should arise… nearly every citizen of Rome can take up arms against an invasion. We learned of this need the hard way…"

"Wait! XANA attacked here before?"

"Indeed… the guard was overwhelmed. We were overrun by the monsters XANA controlled. The city was left in ruin as many of our citizens were deleted… they surrounded the palace. Then, a young girl sacrificed herself to save our city and the world of Lyoko. That girl… was you, Aelita." We both gasped. "You used your vast powers to rescue our city from the shadows… but in doing so, you were returned to an earlier state, when you were first created. You lost your memories, even your own name. When you awoke, we quickly noticed this state and returned you to the outside world, knowing that we could taint you by implanting ideas into your mind that were not true. But it is apparent that you are returning to normal. We could not be happier, as it means that one of our greatest fears is no more. Thank you for your service to us."

"But… like you said, I don't remember anything." My sister gasped again with realization. "And it was about then that I lost my memory, and a few months later that I started interacting with Matt! It all fits!" She bowed. "I may not know what I did, but I am honored for your thanks."

"You are most welcome. We would not be here without you." Sandan cleared his throat, and listened to something another of the Council said to him. "Now, children… There is much more to discuss. First, I would like to speak to you… Kelly, was it?" I nodded, and he went on. "You say you are of Earth, but our scans show you are an installed program. Why are you not back on Earth in your downtime? And how did you come to Lyoko in the first place?"

"Well…" I began to explain what had happened, from her memories of Joe's creation of Lyoko, Xanadu, Aelita, and XANA, to her decision to go to school at Kadic Academy, to her addition to Team Lyoko, meeting Matt, and moving back to Woodland Park. I also talked about my being stuck in Lyoko.

"Ah… this is an interesting development. I am most curious of what caused you to be stuck here… but that is another matter for another time. Aelita, how are you this fine day?"

"Great, sir," she replied.

"That is good. Now, I wish to tell a story… It involves you, your twin sister, and the future of both worlds. It is a tale passed through generations, surviving attacks, deletions, and other mishaps that could have caused us to lose this record…" We both listened intently.

"Eight Earth years ago, our world came into existence. I was its only resident. We also had something of an overmind – our creator. We asked him for things, and more often than not, we got them. The first was more citizens of Lyoko. In time, our city grew and prospered. Another was for a strong defense in case we should be attacked by an outside party. We were granted the power to use weapons. And another… was for hope. That last wish was granted by Aelita. She was unique in that she came with only basic data. She barely knew her own name. Over the course of one Earth year, she learned everything there is to be known about our world. But one day… We came under attack by the Bringer of Shadow, and… the rest is history. She bravely took up arms as the palace was surrounded and fought off each and every creature of darkness until we were free of threat. Then… something struck her, a large object that looked much like an Earth jellyfish. It came to her, and she was powerless to resist it. Tentacles wrapped around her, glowing red, and seemed to be taking some essence from her. In a short time, she was dropped by the creature, not moving or responding. A few of your days later she woke, not able to remember anything but her name once again. I have no doubt that the creature was the work of the Bringer. But… I would like to know what you think of this story."

"I…" I was nervous all of a sudden. "I know the person who started all of this. He is my brother, on Earth. He created Lyoko, Xanadu, the Bringer, Aelita, all of it! I feel somehow responsible for all this…"

"Do not shed a tear, young one. We are not placing the blame for our problems on you. On your brother, our creator… maybe. But never on an innocent. We are too proud a race to place our problems on another. And yet… We feel that something must be done. The prophecy states that you two are important to our future. So… we would like you to sit on our Council."

"WHAT?" we said together.

"It would not be a full-time job… We would ask that you come every so often and assist us in making decisions for the kingdom. In return, we will offer you what we can to aid you in returning to Earth."

"Hmm… Tell me, has this world discovered networking yet?"

"Yes. Why do you ask?"

"Tell you what. When you need the two of us, you can message us. Would that work?" I offered.

"...Yes, that would be fine. Thank you for your assistance." I forked over the internal IP address for the computer in Xanadu. "Now, for your first installment of benefits. Go to the weapons shop in town. I will send word ahead that you may have an item of your choice. Choose well, and we will call upon you should we require your guidance. Go well, young ones." We thanked him again and headed for the shop. Inside…

"Wow…" I breathed. This was amazing – most every type of weapon one could imagine was here! After looking around for a good long time, I settled on a new gun: a highly accurate machine gun. From what I was told, my current character card would be backed up, and then my data would be upgraded for the new weapon. He then mentioned that, in effect, I was now safe from death one time, but I would lose this weapon. Of course, given my predicament, I really didn't care at the moment – I was just happy that I could return in the event of an emergency.

Next to me, Aelita decided on a long, shining katana emitting a soft pink glow. "This will be fun indeed…" However, viewing her card I noticed that her max Life went down a large chunk – by 50 points, to be exact. But then… she could defend herself. And it certainly wasn't a handicap. She sheathed the weapon, looking quite pleased. We headed out and returned to the palace. After thanks and goodbyes, we returned to Lyoko through the waytower to the Forest. We then went back to Xanadu. "Well, that was an interesting turn of events…"

"You can say that again. But for the moment I'm glad you got something to arm yourself with… you'll be much more capable now."

"Yeah! This will make things more fun here, that's for sure…" She was cut off from further comments by the computer: the alarm was going off. "We're under attack?"

"Looks like it." I took a look at the screen. "Yup, there's an activated tower in the ice sector…" The system would notify the others on Earth automatically. "Let's move out!" We headed for the tower, and as we arrived Jeremie and the others showed up as well. "Hey, guys…"

"No idea what XANA's done yet, but we're going to try to stop him BEFORE he does something. Come on, let's –" Jeremie noticed the weapons the two of us held. "Where did you…?"

"We'll explain later. Let's disable that tower."

Checking Aelita's and my cards, I found new abilities. But Aelita seemed to know hers already. "Rush!" she called, suddenly moving forward at an alarming rate, sword out and pointed towards a Block that had been unfortunate enough to cross her path. It shattered into many pieces. "Owned!" she taunted with a smile.

Meanwhile, behind me was another trio of Blocks. I turned and opened fire, destroying the first one, followed by the second behind it, then the third. All in a matter of about two seconds. "How do you like THAT?" I said cheerily. On the other end of the terminal, Matt's jaw hit the floor.

"How did you…..?"

"Like I said, I'll explain later… Let's finish shutting down the tower." Aelita and I led the march to the tower mostly unopposed, my machine gun taking out the last few monsters. Aelita headed inside, which left me outside with the rest of the team. "Thank you for shopping at Ownage Industries. Please don't come again!" I said to the area where I'd gotten rid of the last few monsters. Everyone laughed as the white dome enclosed the landscape…

* * *

Xanadu: Beach, 2:38 PM RWT, 5/21

"So… explain," Matt said.

"Well… you know how our nickname for Aelita is Princess? I thought we'd investigate where the nickname comes from… and we found something interesting. There are four waytowers – one in each sector – that link to a fifth sector we'd never been to before. Mind you, you have to know what you're looking for in order to find them, but they're there. They link to another sector called Rome. There's a huge palace, and a ruling council of elders… weapon and item shops… it's great. And it doesn't seem to be affected by the returns to the past…"

"That explains where you were when we were viewing you…"

"When you WHAT?"

"I didn't mention? We noticed activity in an odd place involving you two, so we observed what was going on. We heard only part of your conversation with Sandan… but it was enough."

"You still should have said something…"

"I looked at the protocols for Rome. It doesn't look like I could have if I wanted to."

"That's odd…"

"Anyway, what about those weapons?"

"Well, it was part of our agreement that we would, from time to time, sit in on council meetings to help make decisions – after all, we're of this world, so we should have a say in its rule. He sent us over to the weapon shop with the staff instructed to give us any one thing we wanted. So I got a firepower upgrade, and Aelita picked up a sword."

"Which cut her max Life by a third."

"But she can defend herself now…"

"…Point taken. Good work, girls." He closed the connection. "Rome… that's interesting…"

* * *

- Neo's Notes -

Right, intermission over… hope you all enjoyed. This will come into play even more when I get to Season 2… but until then, it's just interesting.

I didn't get any reviews yet on chapter 15, for some reason, so I couldn't respond to reviews even if I was allowed.

This is Neo, advising you to keep listening to WNEO for all the latest.


End file.
